13 Years
by Trilicon
Summary: In a real life romance, you don't just get a happy ending—in fact, sometimes the stars have to align just for things to work out. For Hiiragi Kagami, romancing one Izumi Konata was a 13 year ordeal with pleasant and painful memories in equal measure. [Romance, Friendship, Third person Kagami-POV, Time skips, Rated M for Mature Themes]
1. Morning Coffee

**December 25th, 2020, Present Day**

 **Christmas Morning, 13 Years after Graduation**

 **6 AM  
**

Kagami knelt, mostly hidden by the island countertop, the top of her head just peeking over the kitchen island.

 _What am I gonna do…_

"Tryin' to hide from me, Kagami?" An unexpected voice teased from the living room on the other side of the counter, just out of Kagami's sight.

"Oh! _You're_ up early," Kagami said, rummaging hastily for coffee from the back of the breakfast cupboard.

"I get up early sometimes!" Konata protested, the gesture wiggling her massive lock of bed head as it peeked over the counter.

"No, you really don't."

Konata giggled, that lock she never brushed down jiggling about with the slight motion.

"Yeah, you are probably right, Kagami. All the good anime is on late at night anyway."

 _Always comes back to anime with her. Maybe I could tell her there are better reasons to wake up this early? Hmmm, nah, I'll leave that for another time._

Leveraging herself to her feet and putting the coffee on their greenish counter, Kagami stood up, careful of her footing so she wouldn't slip on the tile in her heavy winter socks.

Standing over the counter Kagami looked down at her girlfriend as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

 _Oh, she looks hungover. Maybe we should make extra for breakfast._

It was a ridiculous sight, one she had come to know and expect.

Konata was framed against the walls, bookshelves, and glass cases of the otaku merchandise that adorned their living room, up to and including a life-sized promotional cardboard cutout of Kizumonogatari's own Hanekawa.

Seeing Konata waiting patiently for her coffee, Kagami gave her a dumb smile, to which Konata quickly returned with an equally dumb looking thumbs up.

 _It's the little things..._

Konata's mop of bedhead hung messily over her back and shoulders down to her knees, only minimally adjusted so it didn't hang in front of her signature red underframe glasses. Today her hair was partly obscuring that one faded t-shirt, comfortably three sizes too large. It was the one that read "MEGA MILK" in bold English letters.

 _I still can't believe she walks around in that thing. It's to here knees almost... It's kinda cute in a dorky way, but I swear every other shirt she owns is anime related. I mean, the English on this makes it a bit more obscure, but..._

 _Still... this quirkiness was always one of her cute points, in a weird way. She's passionate, that's what matters._

 _If it makes her happy it makes_ me _happy._

Kagami sighed.

 _How in the world did I ever fall in love with someone so ridiculous?_

"Oh right, Merry Christmas, Konata! You have a good time at the Christmas party yesterday?" Kagami asked, making coffee with practiced dexterity as Konata took up residence at a chair set up at the kitchen island countertop.

 _I wish we had some Christmas decorations to put up, but where would we even keep them off season?_

"Merry Christmas to you too, Kagami. Yeah, last night was a lot of fun with everyone there! Still, vaguely disappointed that I didn't get as many presents as I used to, but that's adulthood, huh?"

"Wait. Wait." Kagami said, leaning over the countertop and looking Konata in the face. "Hold up, are you telling me that all those presents your dad gave you at the Christmas party were _less_ than he gave you as a kid?"

"Yeah, dad used to spoil me _preeetty_ bad back in the day, just a few kind words here and there and he'd give me everything." Konata said lackadaisically, adorably brushing her hair out of her face with the same two fingers she used to emphasize that statement.

"Back in the day, _right..._ Well, at least everyone had a good time, that's what's important." Kagami added, sighing contently as the coffee maker began to percolate.

"Yeah, but you really need to cut loose; you hardly drank anything last night." Konata said, palm upturned on the counter as if suggesting something.

"It's not like we can afford much booze on our budget anyway, "Kagami said, "and it's also not like you can handle much to start with, Konata."

 _Lightweight. Literally._

"Yeah, thankfully I'm not really feeling it much now anyway." Konata added, kicking her short, surprisingly toned legs into the walkway between the kitchen and living room, perched atop her rotating chair.

"Kinda surprising considering the, uh, quality of that improv karaoke session you did with Patty." Kagami said, smiling playfully as she recalled the screechy performance. "I don't even know what _song_ that was."

"I want to say it was Head Cha-la as a duet thing, but it might have been Makafushigi Adventure. Something Dragon Ball I know." Konata said, cupping her head in her hands as she struggled to remember.

"You sure you're alright if you can't remember?" Kagami asked, sympathetically adjusting her own hair, draped straight down her back as Kagami watched Konata struggle get her hair in order without a brush.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, I got that much under control." Konata said with another big dumb thumbs up and a bigger, slightly forced smile.

"Okay okay, I believe you." Kagami said as she began to wander about the corner of the island countertop, taking in her girlfriend as she sat legs spread wide on the rotating chai-

" _Konata, seriously_?" Kagami said, stopping in place as she held her took effort to keep her drooping head from falling. "You could at least put some underwear on. _You're gonna catch cold like that_."

"You didn't seem to mind a few months ago~." Konata said, a slight teasing lilt in her voice.

"It was summer a few months ago." Kagami said flatly.

"Besides, it's not as if there can't be _other_ reasons not to wear any." Konata said, that lilt taking on a slightly more sultry tone.

 _Is she trying to...?_

"You can't be serious. _This_ early in the morning? Before coffee, even?"

"Are you not in the mood, Kagami? Because I most certainly _am._ "

"Oh for the love of…" Kagami sighed, lifting her head up to look Konata in the eyes with a wry smile.

" _Alright_ , get over here, you! The coffee will be there when we're done." Kagami said, taking Konata in both arms as she carried her to the couch.

Konata let out a delighted squeal as held tight to Kagami

 _What am I gonna do with you?_

* * *

Kagami draped Konata with a blanket as she lay on the couch, the same couch that sat in essentially sat in basically the same spot perpendicular to the kitchen counter as long as they'd lived here.

Redressing, Kagami couldn't help but notice that dumb English shirt Konata had been wearing was draped across Hanekawa's cardboard face.

 _On the other end of the room._

Kagami giggled.

 _Yeah, let's get this thing off of Hanekawa before they get more dented and bent than the years have already done. Gotta take care the things you own, not that I'd ever tell anyone this doesn't belong to_ Konata _._

Kagami turned back to Konata, still basking in afterglow.

 _Whoops, didn't quite get it over her legs, still, nice to see that little boyish dimple she's got on her butt._

 _Is... it weird to say that does something for me?_

Taking in her lazing girlfriend, she pulled the blanket back down to her thigh, taking a seat on the remaining unoccupied seat cushion

Tucking her shirt back into her pants, Kagami pulled her hair out of the twintails she'd put them in during, and smiled at Konata.

Konata turned around to smile back before turning over to a more comfortable position.

"Now that that's over, I'll bring us out some coffee, just give me a sec." Kagami said, walking around the nearby counter. "Two sugars and cream, as you like it?"

Konata's hand reached out from under the sheet, giving her a thumbs up as confirmation.

Kagami smiled harder.

 _Is this what contentment feels like? I just can't help acting like it sometimes._

 _It almost feels too good to be true that we came this far together..._

Taking a deep, deep breath, Kagami took in the life they had together.

 _Looking_ around at the life they'd built for themselves, It was all something she once could hardly have imagined.

 _A loving life. Living in our apartment. Our home. The one we'd made our own together._

The memories began to flood her mind, thinking back on times past.

Kagami wondered to herself.

"How did we come this far?"


	2. The Grass is Bluer

**August 8th, 2007, 13 Years Ago**

 **Nine Months to Graduation**

 **Wednesday, 1 PM  
**

Kagami peered intently at the illustration in the light novel she was reading.

It was of a young woman, with long blue hair and an enormous white sunhat, who was standing awash in sunlight on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

Kagami held the book out at arm's length, taking in the lead heroine on the cover.

 _She just gives off this weird, ethereal aura in the art… maybe it's how it uses pictures like this along with its powerful prose._

 _But… there's something else. Just what is it about this that just makes my heart ache like it does?_

"Hey, hey, Kaga _mi～!_ What's got you so happy?" Konata said, lightly depressing the book Kagami was buried in so she could see Kagami's face.

 _Huh? Hmm… the protagonist on the cover looks a little bit like Konata, if a lot girlier. But more importantly-_

"Hey, don't just touch it like that, it's not yours after all." Kagami said, putting the book down.

 _I struggle to remember why I'd let Konata start referring to me without an honorific. It's tantamount to saying we're a little closer than friends. I suppose it can't be helped at this point. She's done it so much everyone else has started doing it too..._

 _I suppose this kind of forwardness is refreshing, but isn't it, like, really weird? Not really like I care if she calls me that all that, so no harm no foul._

"O-oh sorry, yeah I seriously stepped out of line there," Konata said, a look of earnest regret on her face before it settled back to her default lazy expression. "It's just kinda interesting watching you be so expressive reading and not even knowing what it was all about. Anyway, yeah you're right. I'd certainly be upset if someone started mistreating _my_ manga."

"It's not a manga though, it's a _novel."_ Kagami said, flatly poking fun at her

 _Not like I can ever get her to read anything that isn't a manga or some adult-oriented_ _game anyway._

"Come on Kagami, we both know it's a _light_ novel." Konata said, lilting her speech with that signature, irritating tease of hers.

"Well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that," Kagami said, resting her elbows on her desk as Konata took a seat across from her.

"It was originally this super popular romance book this woman published: The Grass is Bluer on the Other Side. But it got so popular, even overseas, they decided to adapt it to Light Novel format. A lot of people weren't happy with that, preferring the non-moe character designs from the previous artwork. Still did its job and got me to read it."

Konata turned her head, smiling at Kagami for some reason.

"Wow, Kagami, that sounds like the kind of spiel me or Miyuki might give, color me impressed!" Konata said, seemingly a genuine compliment.

"Shu-shut-up.." Kagami stammered out, reflexively playing with her hair as she avoided eye contact.

"Oh! Nice job." Konata said, her smile a little skeevy looking. "Very tsundere~."

 _Ugh. I swear, I seem to feed her tsundere… fetish? Is that the right word for that? I'll have to look it up later. This otaku business is confusing_

 _But, still. Did I need to react like that? She was definitely complimenting me._

Kagami stewed on this for a moment.

 _I don't know, it just feels… strange accepting a compliment from her. Something just feels off about being complimented by the likes of her._

"But yeah-" Konata said, pulling Kagami back to reality. "I totally get why people might be leery about it. "

Konata took up a posture with her head cupped in one hand, suggesting she was thinking as she began to speak.

"Manga, games, books, light novels, visual novels, stage shows, anime, television, movies, they all have their own presentation strengths and weaknesses." Konata said, raising a finger for emphasis as she spoke. "Like, let's take Dragon Ball the anime vs Dragon Ball the manga. Specifically, the stuff in the middle, Z Fighters stuff post Gohan being born when Raditz shows up and things started getting super serious instead of your usual Akira Toriyama gag business."

 _I have no idea she's talking about, but I'll play along I guess._

"I see…"

 _Konata was usually into the cuter character designs, bishoujo and moe and the like, but she did have a fascination with Dragon Ball and robot anime stuff that seemed to break that boundary. Even if that stuff was usually directed at boys and full of musclemen._

Seemingly committing herself entirely to thinking, Konata pulled a chair out from under a nearby desk and sat next to Kagami.

 _Whoa, that's too close!_

An image wormed its way in Kagami's head, of Konata leaning into the back of Kagami's head a few months ago, complete with all related sensations.

 _W-what the hell? F-focus on what she's talking about, Kagami!_

"With the anime, you have all these incredible kinetic fight scenes, with visible, visceral destruction, but it just seems to always be happening, right?" Konata said, idly leaning toward Konata as she spoke.

Kagami could feel her cheeks begin to redden as Konata leaned in further, apparently not even noticing herself.

 _G-gotta add something to this, quick._

"L-like it's just non stop, only hitting the brakes to drop exposition or explanations of how this fight is progressing, right?." Kagami said, trying to contribute to get that idea out of her head, gently nudging Konata to lean in the other direction.

Leaning to the other side with a confused look, Konata quickly collected her train of thought and returned to whatever it was she was wanted to say.

"Right, right. Anime is good at some things but those things aren't the same strengths as manga as a format. I mean, compare to the manga. It just sets you up to think something is about to happen, gives you all the time you need to think about knowing something is going to happen, all the anticipation it needs, and then one panel draws your eyes through the page to the second panel, and then to another, and then-"

" _WHAM!"_

Konata slammed her fist into her waiting open hand to emphasize. "The other guy flies through a mountain hitting every rock along the way. Then he gets up like it was nothing. It does so much more to sell how incredibly strong and tough these big muscley dudes are, you know?"

"So," Kagami said, trying her hardest to relate. "You're trying to say that the manga is better than the anime because of reader expectations. Like, uh, it only has so much page space and needs to make the most the format, right?"

 _Or, at least I_ think _that's what she's saying._

"Yeah I can get that," Kagami continued, "They made some weird changes to the pacing of this book in the light novel adaptation to make it have a light novel's short, three to twelve page long chapters. The short chapter thing is sort of the hallmark of the medium. It's more readable but it feels strange somehow."

"EXACTLY! Wow, Kagami you're so smart! You're like Miyuki in twintails!" Konata said, jubilance plain on her face as she rustled in her seat.

"If anything you are an otaku Miyuki with longer hair when you can rattle off all that." Kagami said under her breath.

 _Still, it's… different somehow. Miyuki's info dumps were always so… utilitarian. Konata, when she gets riled up, she's always so passionate. It's really nice to see someone so unashamed about her passion, even if she was really really annoying about it sometimes._

 _She's a bit like the protagonist of the book I'm reading, but more insufferable. It's kinda cute honestly._

 _THE BOOK. The_ book _is cute and she just resembles the book's main heroine a little with her blue hair and honesty!_

 _Konata is a tiny chatterbox otaku! What's to like about her?!_

"Kagami, something up?" Konata said, pulling Kagami from her reverie. "You've been cycling through expressions, looking back and forth between me and that LN you like so much this whole time."

"I-is a-anything up?" Kagami blurted out. "Uh, nothing's up, nothing at all. No way. I was thinking about how romantic the book is. That's all."

 _Oh god,_ _there's no way she's gonna buy that excuse!_

"Oh, I geeeeeet _it,_ " Konata said, her mouth curling into a creepy, impish smile. "You think I look like the girl on the cover, don't you?"

"N-no! How could you be as cute as someone like Umi-chan?!" Kagami replied instinctively.

 _What am I even saying?!_

"Oh, so she's cute, now? That makes _me_ cute? Kagami, you _girl lover,_ you!"

Kagami acted before thinking, picking the book to hit Konata over the head. A sharp, but harmless crack of light book's spine coming into contact with the Konata's head sounded out, drawing attention from the rest of her homeroom class.

"Owww, you didn't need to _hit_ me, but that is what makes tsunderes cute, right? Sorry if I said something bad." Konata said, rubbing her head where she was struck.

 _That was… mortifying! I… I have to say something, say something,_ say anything _about what she just suggested!_

Kagami's mouth opened, but no words would come out, just a silent hoarse croak.

 _When she said that, I just… I just grabbed the nearest thing, the book I was just telling her shouldn't be handled like that._

 _She's… so honest… honest in a way I can't be..._

 _But what is it that was so mortifying?_ What? _Was it the girl on the cover being cute?_

Kagami pondered the question, staring at the book as she did so.

 _No, I… think it was Konata suggesting I thought she was cute… But what does that have to do with any..._

Kagami swallowed.

 _No, that can't be it._

Kagami thought to herself, laughing under her breath at the absurdity of the notion.

Kagami looked down at the book on her desk and turned it over in her hands.

 _Couldn't be..._


	3. Hot Water

**June 20th, 2009**

 **13 Months After Graduation**

 **1 PM**

Kagami's steps slowed, cicadas chirping in seemingly every direction as she reached the threshold of Konata's home. Kagami noticed drops of sweat fall from her arm as she reached to lean on the door for a moment.

 _I know i_ _t's important to maintain your connections as you grow older, but I_ _gotta_ _question if that wisdom holds in a Japanese summer at 100% humidity. I'm glad I_ _'m_ _get_ _ting_ _to stay over and all, but god, it's kinda sad how hard it is to keep in contact with friend_ _s anymore._

 _Least I'll get to hang out with Konata more in August, even if it's at Comiket._

 _Exhausting as it was last time, it was still fun. Maybe I might find something I'm actually interested in this time. Besides, Konata is still a fun time to hang around, annoyances and all._

 _Still, getting all hot and sweaty walking around in a humid confined space is frankly more trouble than it's worth for comics._

Grimacing as she touched the hot metal doorbell button, Kagami was greeted by a pair of-

Kagami quickly tilted her face up out of Konata's cousin's cleavage.

"Oh hey, Kagami! What brings you 'round these parts?" Yui said, sweaty herself for obvious reasons.

 _That tank top is… a little on the skimpy side, don't you think, Yui? Makes me feel overdressed when I know for a fact I'm not._

"What, didn't the twerp tell you I was coming?" Kagami said, ushering herself through the door and out of the direct sunlight.

"Oh, Yutaka? She's at Minami's place with your friend Miyuki right now. Yutaka's not telepathic as far as I know." Yui stretched as she stepped out off of the mud floor, the smell of alcohol hanging faintly where she stood.

 _What? Oh okay, she's been drinking._

"Okay, first of all, it's 2009, everyone has a cell phone. Secondly, I was talking about Konata, not Yutaka. Third, Yutaka's your sister, even as a misunderstanding how can you call her twerp?"

Yui stumbled in a circle, turning and bending over to look Kagami in the eyes with a cold-blooded gaze.

"How can _you_ call _Konata_ a twerp you… _high schooler_." Yui stammered out, cheap beer like Kagami's older sisters drank on her breath.

Kagami choked back a correction that she was in college.

 _I… yeah that was a step too far_ _, even in close company._

"You're right, I shouldn't have gone that far. Anyway, is she up in her room?" Kagami followed her as she stumbled into the house, her footwork clearly faking a drunk walk.

 _Heh, I guess she was acting more drunk than she was for fun or something. I suppose I sorta get that._

"Nah, she's in the living room, 'least she should be," Yui said, taking steps around the corner.

 _I- I'd ask her to qualify that, but if dealing with my sisters drunk talk has taught me anything, it might be best to just figure it out on my own._

Stepping into the room, Kagami noted four different fans pointed at the center of the living room.

Sitting at the table was, except Konata herself, the entire household. All were trying to beat the heat as evident by an empty tub of ice cream and several empty bottles of green tea.

 _So… I see Yui isn't the only one dressed like that apparently... Still..._

Plopping herself on a floor cushion, Yui took a seat across from Soujirou, who for his part was completely invested in fanning himself.

"Oh hey, Kagami! Konnichiwa!" Patty said, a slight glow on her face and some kind of drink can by her side.

 _She's_ _even_ _less dressed than Yui!_

 _And... so is Konata's dad, but I'd rather not dwell on that._

 _Ugh, what the hell is it with this family dynamic? She's just an exchange student! Sure she lives here, it's just... she's hardly even-_

"Okay, first of all, how can you make speaking Japanese sound foreign like that," Kagami said, forcibly ripping her mind from the gutter. "and second, are you even old enough to drink?!"

 _Why is it that every time I come in the house someone says or does something outrageous?!_

"Nah, it's fine, it's just root beer," Patty said in her inscrutable American accent. "It's non-alcoholic!"

"If it's rootbeer, they why is your face glowing?" Kagami asked, incredulously.

" _Because it's hot!_ " the room replied in unison, including Konata as she returned from the kitchen with five glasses of ice tea.

 _Knowing this family Yui spiked it with whiskey or something equally weird...  
_

 _I... really hope that stays a joke.  
_

"Oh god, Konata, my daughter, you are a lifesaver," Soujirou said, once again lying down on the floor as soon as he safely had a glass.

Kagami looked at Konata.

 _I'm just… just, trying to understand what I'm looking at._

 _I'm just gonna assume that's some kind of high cut top for the sake of my own sanity, even in this heat._

"Oh hey, Kagami, nice to see you finally arrived," Konata said, setting the remaining glasses on the table.

"You didn't even tell them I was coming? I mean everyone is half dressed. Please don't tell me this is normal here."

 _Yeah, this can't possibly be normal._

"Only on really hot days. Or really lazy days, or when Dad isn't around. Or that time Patty just decided she didn't want to wear a shirt when it was only us girls."

"Say what now?" Soujirou said, still awkwardly splayed on the floor.

"It was _one_ time!" Patty object with a fake drunkenness. "I just threw all the shirts in my size in the wash, and he wasn't home. I was wearing a _bra_! Everyone else is so much smaller than me!"

 _Why… why do I bother asking questions?_

"Sooo, okay, moving on from there. Were we gonna hang out here, Konata?"

"Nah, thought it would be nicer hanging out in my room for once. Plus Patty was showing me some great videos on this 'you tube' site she's been telling me about. We even upgraded our internet to handle streaming video!" Konata rambled off excitedly.

"Streaming video?" Kagami questioned as Konata unplugged and retrieved a fan, much to her dad's unstated annoyance.

"Yeah, Patty sold my dad on the concept, so we upgraded our internet package. I thought I'd show you." Konata said excitedly, not even remembering to usher Kagami into the hallway.

Following her up the stairs to her room, Konata turned on the AC, plugged in her fan, and took in the plummeting temperatures, sighing with relief.

 _Yeah, I guess it can get a bit hot and stuffy in a closed room like this, I guess I-_

"Hey?!" Kagami reacted, steping back.

Konata was putting on a black tank top.

"I-it _was_ a sports bra?!" Kagami shouted, half flushed from what she hoped was the heat, before suddenly covering her mouth.

"Oh, no need to worry, the walls are actually really soundproof."

"That… just raises even more questions…."

 _It's also not the problem at all._

"As for the bra thing, don't tell anyone, no one has asked yet, it's a lot cooler too, so-"

"Stop!" Kagami said, palm firmly fixed to her face. "I don't want to know, just show me what you were going to show me."

 _It looked so nice on her I didn't want to think it actually was..._

Removing an uncomfortable, sweaty palm from her face, Kagami took in the room.

 _I've only been in here a few times before. It's still packed with walls of anime merchandise and manga I don't recognize. Some of it in doubles._

 _Sure it's weirdly admirable how much effort she put into this, but this had to cost a small fortune, and couldn't she put that better to her studi-_

"Onii-chan, you can't, not there!"

"Mia, I'm sorry, I can't stop my hips!"

Kagami's head snapped to Konata's monitor; lit with a half pixelated image of a black-haired haired girl having-

" _Gwah?!_ " Kagami shouted at the uncomfortable sight, falling backward onto Konata's bed.

"Oh right, Dual Savior, I need to give that back to dad at some point. _Save and quit_."

"What the heck was that?!" Kagami demanded, clumsily raising herself to her feet.

"Oh sorry, I left it on last night and just turned my monitor off, completely slipped my mind."

"No I mean-I, nevermind, just show me what it is you want to show me already…" Kagami said, visibly defeated

 _I know she feels strangely comfortable about this kind of stuff, but would it kill her to show some_ _tact… Well, I guess this is part of her being so frank… I guess..._

Konata did something, closing out to the home screen of her computer, covered in colorful icons covering up a beautiful looking green hill.

Clicking on the Blue E looking one Konata-

The screen was covered in a decidedly not pixelated video of a man and a woman-

" _Goddammit,_ Konata can you stop with the porn?!" Kagami shouted, slowly developing a scalp to shoulder blush.

"Oh, sorry about that too. Last night Patty was showing me how easy it is to find the uncensored stuff from Engl-" Konata suddenly stopped as Kagami put her hands Konata's shoulder.

"I'm gonna say this once okay? _I don't want to know these things._ Got it?" Kagami said, though not quite convincingly due to her lack of eye contact.

 _I… kinda want to know what she was looking at, but this isn't the time or place…_

"Sorry, didn't realize it would get to you, but I honestly didn't plan for that."

 _It's not so much that it got to me as much as the thought that you are looking at porn…_

Clicking and typing her way away from that, Konata pulled up something with the words OK GO above it alongside a bunch of other English words Kagami couldn't parse. There were four men in pretty clothes on treadmills.

 _God this looks really simple. Shouldn't high school English have taught me enough to get this… Also before I forget-_

"If there is any nudity in this you are giving me your express consent to punch you this time, alright?"

 _Why am I such close friends with this dork?_

"Don't worry, you are gonna love it!" Konata said as she stabbed down on a key, starting the video.

* * *

"Okay, so what is the significance of this Rick Astley guy again?"

 _Or that screwy video with the guy saying_ 'all your base' _in broken English over and over again, for that matter._

"So, people post links to him, and disguise it as other things and then people freak out when it's just this old cruddy pop song instead!"

Kagami stopped for a second, thinking of the logistics of that.

"But how would they even see it, most phones can't handle video, much less streaming video, and not everyone owns a computer like you do."

Konata scratched her head, unsure how to reply to that.

"Maybe I should go ask Patty, she'd probably have a better answer. Maybe it's an American thing." Konata said.

 _It's kinda cute seeing her get so worked up over this, but that was something I just can't help but like about her. The way she tries so hard to share and fully enjoy things. I guessed this was how she avoided being a loner all these years._

Before either of them could really consider if they wanted to ask Patty about this, a loud knock came a the door.

"Hey, you two decent in there?" Yui shouted through the door.

 _Apparently, Konata wasn't kidding about the soundproofing_.

 _...Decent?_

"Yeah, just let me put some pants on!" Konata shouted.

Kagami reflexively punched Konata in the arm. Konata just grinned through the pain.

"Just come in before she says anything else weird," Kagami said, gauging how loudly she needed to speak.

The door clicked open, and in stepped Yui, wrapped in a full-length towel.

"Well, you two shouldn't be decent. Bath's open. Meanwhile, I gotta hit the road," Yui said, rubbing the towel on her head into her scalp.

 _Wait she's leaving?_

Kagami looked to the clock on Konata's computer screen.

"Woah, why is it 7:30?!"

"Kagami, we've been watching these things for the past 6 hours, you didn't notice?"

"No, I mean, _wow_. Tell Patty this stuff is a little too addictive."

"I know right?" Konata said matter of factly, enthusiasm plain on her face.

"Hate to interrupt, but can you two get in already? The water won't stay hot forever, you know."

 _What?_

"Us both?" Kagami's eyes widened a little as she felt a slight discomfort in the pit of her stomach.

"Sure, why not. No reason why we can't, 'specially since Dad'll be stuck with a bit less than lukewarm water if we go separately," Konata said as if it were the most-

 _No._

 _Kagami, that_ is _the most natural thing in the world. Quit being weird._

"Well, let's get moving Kagami, don't have all night," Konata said, quickly gathering up a fresh set of pajamas as Kagami awkwardly shuffled the bag she brought with her.

 _I honestly hadn't even considered if the "shared bath for warm water" policy we use at home would apply here as well. I mean there are four people living here, plus Yui._

 _And besides, you take baths with Tsukasa all the time, why is this bothering you now of all times?_

Huffing to join Konata as she waltzed down the hall, Kagami took careful steps, looking over Konata for no other reason than… her eyes just settling there.

Stepping into the changing room and shutting the door, the smell of damp air was obvious as Konata began to-

Kagami looked away, making a point of turning so they weren't facing one another.

 _It's a natural reaction, we don't need… aren't supposed to… aren't_ here to _look anyway._

"So, wait, wouldn't you normally take these with Yutaka? Maybe Patty?" Kagami said, distracting herself with logistics as she pensively unbuttoned her blouse.

"Nah, Yutaka says it makes her feel ' _more like an adult_ ' to do it herself, so she has insisted on going alone for a long time," Konata said, shirt casually flying past Kagami into the washer with practiced grace.

"Isn't she, like, 17?" Kagami asked incredulously, trying to get her mind elsewhere. "A little old to be thinking about that kind of adulting don't you think?"

"Turned 18 in December actually."

 _I… can hear_ her clothes coming _off of her…._

"As for Patty," Konata said, unmentionables coming past next. "Ever since she read this book 'A Guide to Taking a Bath Like a Japanese Person', she's been obsessed with the quiet contemplation part of bathing. We talk entirely too much to let her 'Contemplate life's great mysteries' to her taste, so she started insisting on doing it alone."

Kagami swallowed.

 _I want out of this, this doesn't feel right. But… it really shouldn't? Well, I-I guess there isn't much I can do at this stage without making myself look weird. Nothing really else to do but to finish undressing and joi-_

Kagami nearly jumped out of her skin, to Konata's audible delight, as Konata teased the small of Kagami's back, commanding Kagami to turn to-

"Come-on! Time's a-wastin'! Not gonna stay hot for the others forever you know. " Konata said playfully, turning around to stride into the waiting bathroom.

 _I… I saw her… She really is still that flat, or... I guess it is just genetics. … and then she turned around. She has a dimple on it... That's cute as hell. But Konata is-_

Kagami punched herself in the jaw painfully, fist connecting with bone.

Forcibly emptying her head Kagami remembered at the last moment to untie her twintails, stepping into the entryway.

Kagami's entire body was hit with damp air all at once before she closed the door behind her

Kagami tried to take up the empty washing seat as casually as she was capable of.

 _Nothing remotely unusual._

 _This isn't even the first time you've seen another girl naked, much less Konata naked before._

 _What could possibly have changed since- no, nothing has changed._

"Sooo, I was thinking." Konata sat uncomfortably close on the edge of the bath, feet planted firmly on a non slip mat outside it. "In anime, whenever a character gets into the bath, it always ends up becoming this weird mix of fanservice and normal relaxation, quiet time and all that. You know what I mean?"

Kagami began to shower off, cognizant of Konata's idle, innocent gaze as she sat entirely too close.

"Uh, not really. Most of the shows I've watched don't really do that much."

"Well, how about the LNs you read, Kagami?"

"Oh those, they have a bit of nudity in them from time to time, but it's usually pretty considered… except when it's really not at all…" Kagami ran her fingers through her hair, massaging the shampoo into her scalp.

 _Sometimes I feel like I get the Monogatari series, sometimes I don't..._

"Right right, you know how everyone just sorta sits around and relaxes for a while, but only the girls ever seem to be indulged in? With the guys it's always them sitting around, thinking. What's up with that?"

Konata dramatically raised an arm to emphasize her point.

"Why can't the guys have a little more fanservice? _Equal opportunity_!"

" _Equal opportunity?"_ Kagami questioned the girl's sudden English phrase as Kagami rinsed the shampoo from her hair.

"Where in the world did you-" Kagami looked away from Konata , suddenly turning her head back when she saw. "- pick up a phrase like that?"

"Internet! You can learn a lot about obscure subjects there, you know."

 _And see a lot of indecent things, apparently… But… as for her question..._

"Right… hmm, maybe it's the kinds of shows you watch. Try asking Patty for pointers? She seems more acquainted with stuff written… uh… for girls." Kagami tactfully avoided Patty's known interest in…

 _Yaoi? Boy's Love? I don't know the difference is and I don't care_ to _know._

 _I don't know why I keep indulging Konata on weird subjects, but if it's on her mind, it's only right to help her, right?_

"Hmm, you might be right, but it's weird, you know?"

"What's weird?" Kagami asked, regretfully.

"In anime, they normally avoid nudity outside of the DVD and BD release and OVAs, but isn't that, like, part of the experience?" Konata shifted in her seat, taking care not to slip backward into the tub as she inched slightly closer to Kagami.

"I'm not sure I follow what you mean by that." Kagami threw the wash basin's contents over herself, committing to one last rinse with the handheld showerhead.

"I mean it's always covered up by something. Isn't it just normal, like supremely Japanese, to be comfortable with nudity like this? It's just a bath, but you almost never see nudity like that when it's not done for fanservice." Konata said.

"I mean, I turn and there you are, Kagami, showering off before the bath. B-cup and pubic hair in plain view, sitting pretty like it's the most normal thing in the-"

Kagami clubbed Konata over the head with the shower head with a gentle thud. Thankfully remembering to hold back at the last second from previous experience. A blush developed over Kagami from scalp to shoulders as she wordlessly climbed into the bath, sinking herself into the water.

" _Owwww…_ Kagami, you didn't have to _hit_ me… Message received. Much as I love that tsundere side, Kagami doesn't appreciate brutally specific honestly." Konata winced, rubbing her head as she held her eyes closed in pain.

Kagami painfully tried to suck in a breath, mouth sealed shut.

 _No, it's not that, I love that about you it's just… what… what is it just…?_

Kagami sank her head beneath the water, seemingly cooler than her head.

* * *

Lying in her favorite green pajamas, Kagami struggled to find any sleep, looking over at the illuminated digital clock to see it was already 3 AM.

 _It's not just the heat._

 _It's not just Konata's snoring on the futon on the floor..._

 _It's not… just sleeping in someone else's home, or in their bed for that matter…_

 _What is bothering me so much?_

 _Is it really Konata? Being so close to her? How she talks?_

Kagami turned over to look at the girl when she noticed something.

It wasn't a sight or sound, but a _smell._

 _This room…this bed... it even_ smells _like her…_

 _It's not unpleasant, or anything strange… it's just… the natural smell of a person._

 _I noticed a long time ago I could smell the difference between the my sister's rooms, and the clothes they wore. That's just part of being close to someone, I guess._

 _So, evidently, I even know what Konata_ smells like _..._

Kagami turned back over yet again in Konata's bed, noticing her pillow smelled the same and even faintly of the scented shampoo Konata was using.

 _Vanilla..._

Kagami took the pillow out from under her head, holding at arm's length in front of her face.

 _I can't stand being around her… but all the same, I can't get enough of it._

 _I… reacted like that to her, I've wanted to spend all this time with her, find her fun despite her faults._

 _I enjoy spending time with her, but being so close to her made me anxious, thrice so when she was naked. Even now it makes me anxious._

 _She's outgoing and means well, she's annoying and brash, she says anything on her mind, absolutely anything, she's passionate and witty, she's uncompromising and weird, she's always showing me the funnest things…_

 _Why her…_

Kagami swung a closed fist at the pillow, weeping silently as she did, as the facts of the matter came into focus.

 _When did this happen?!_

 _Why?!_

 _When did I start loving her?!_


	4. A Confession to Make

**Sunday, August 22th, 2010**

 **27 Months after Graduation**

 **7 PM**

"I just really like her, you know?" Kagami said, scratching the back of her head as she spoke.

"I'd like to spend a lot more time with her if she'd let me, or we could find the time. But who am I kidding, I live in Tokyo now. How would that even work?" Running her hand through her hair, Kagami coiled it around her fingers, words beginning to shake.

"Do you think I should just… ask her out?" Kagami stammered out the words. Just trying to say them at all. " _Sheeyeah_ —right. Like I could just ask another girl out like that."

"Maybe I should try asking her if we can hang out more _?_ Would that be weird? I don't want to look like I'm obsessed with her or anything."

"Maybe I should take her to the beach before the summer is out. I'd kill to see her in a bikini."

Kagami's leaned forward carefully shifting her weight onto the desk beside her, the idea seemingly distracting her from elaborating.

"Uh! Not in a weird way or anything!" Kagami said, suddenly waving her arms about before her, backpedaling the implication.

"I'd just like to see her in something other than that school swimsuit she still keeps around. That sounds really nice. "

"Even if wearing that thing is really like her; she still weirds people out waltzing around in that."

Kagami's eyes slowly wandered, settling off to the side in a wistful expression.

"I'd probably weird people out too if I showed interest in her, huh? What would I even tell people? That we're dating?"

Kagami resisted to the urge to press her forehead against the glass in front of her.

"You can't help me with this, you're a goldfish."

Kagami let out a defeated sigh to her roommate Gyupi, a conversation partner like no other.

 _Literally, there is no other. God, it's lonely in here._

Kagami stepped away from the room-dominating 40-gallon fish tank. Swimming happily inside was her very own Gyupi, more than ten times the size of that tiny goldfish net she caught him in a few years ago.

"Sorry I talk your gills off like this, Gyupi," Kagami said, reaching up to sprinkle a few flakes of his favorite food into the crystal clear water.

Kagami smiled, tilting her head at her friend as he leapt into action.

"I hope you're happy living in there. Sometimes I don't know if your tank is really really big, or this room is just that small."

Kagami turned to look at the lack of floor space, the microwave taking up the top of the mini fridge so she still had a spot of counter space.

 _I guess both can be true…_

With a resigned yawn and a stretch, Kagami paced as far as she could, a meager thirteen steps, and walked back, unsure what to do with the rest of her night.

 _Maybe I should head across the hall and make some food. Study isn't healthy if you aren't eating right after all. Gives me an excuse to leave my room… I mean my apartment._

Kagami scowled.

 _God this place is small..._

A bathroom, tiny fridge, a bed, desk, Gyupi's tank, and an increasingly large collection of expensive law books. It was enough Kagami could at least get by with her laptop, but an obvious step down from her previous standard of living.

 _Ugh, I can't stand being cooped up in here. Still, nothing compared to the hell that was getting into the Tokyo U law program. Gonna be a long time before I can trade up for a bigger apartment, though..._

Kagami sighed.

 _Sometimes I wonder what possessed me to try and be become a lawyer…_

Kagami paced back to her desk, covered in thick law textbooks.

 _Some part of me wishes I had gone with a futon instead of a bed just to have space to roll my chair around…_

Even though she had to leave most of her books with her parents, most of the shelf space was covered in paperwork and books.

Despite the sheer clinical of the array of tome-like books and scholarly resources, she did keep a small collection of personal books. But among them, one book stood out among her favorites.

Pulling out the unnecessarily tall book, Kagami stared at the cover for a moment.

 _Umi to Umi_. Umi and the Sea—that or Umi _and_ Umi depending on how you read the kanji.

Kagami had secretly purchased it at summer Comiket the year prior.

 _Man, I still can't believe I bought something so scandalous. Right under Konata's nose too. It was just sitting unsold in stacks at a Comiket booth. I just couldn't let someone else so passionate about my favorite book just sit with unsold copies._

Chucking at the memory, she flipped through it past the words "The Grass is Bluer on the Other Side Fan Comic".

Taking a seat on her bed, Kagami for the first time tonight relaxed, shoulders slowly untensing.

 _I could never get into these sorts of things, fancomics and all, but Umi-chan looked so lonely on the cover. I was kinda naive to not know why she asked for my ID when I bought it, though..._

Kagami tiled back in her chair reminiscing as she looked at the rather lewd pages of the book.

 _I could hardly stand to look at it when I first bought it. Just a few bare breasts and I was closing the blinds and locking the door. I can see that much in a mirror._

Kagami chuckled under her breath, continuing to leaf through the book for no other reason than to get her mind off of studying.

 _At first, I just thought it was weird, but as I read it, I realized it was trying to talk about how changing his gender seriously affected their relationship, given its same sex. Even if it sorta assumed they were both into girls._

Kagami's eyes glazed for a moment, staring at the two kissing on the 20th page.

It would take her several months to admit to herself it was relatable, but she could probably credit her talks with Goldy to it at least.

 _Two girls…_

Putting the comic away, Kagami looked to the only open spot on her bookshelf. It was the only space she could make since her desk was covered in law books. It wasn't so much open as much as it had no books on it. Only a photo frame sat there, taking up valuable shelf space.

This wasn't the nice professional looking one they sent their parents. No, this was the joke one they took afterword. This showed the real fun and excitement.

In the frame Kagami stood behind Konata, taking a group graduation photo with Tsukasa and Miyuki. They all clutched their diplomas, safely rolled up in their carrying tubes.

Konata was hugging Tsukasa from behind, overjoyed, Tsukasa was still crying in excitement, Miyuki's normally prim demeanor was caught grinning subtly, mid giggle, and Kagami stood behind Konata with her biggest smile as she gave Konata rabbit ears.

Kagami winced as she took in the happy memory.

 _Do I... really want to be standing behind her my whole life?_

Kagami instinctively pictured Konata, smiling impishly.

 _Could I… could we?_

Kagami looked out the window, dispirited look growing on her face.

She carefully put the picture back, getting out of her chair and flopping carelessly down onto the bed behind her.

 _We… probably couldn't… I mean… what are the chances she's like me?_ She wondered.

 _I just… I want to talk to her about it…_

Kagami reached over and took a pillow in her arms, hugging it tight.

 _What would she even think about it if I just decided to tell her? She doesn't seem like the type to be homophobic or anything, it's just…_

Kagami rolled over, looking up at the picture frame.

"What if I lose what I already have with her?" Kagami whispered to herself.

 _I just want to hang out with her, I just want to keep being her friend as long as I possibly can… I just… want her to know how much I care… I want to hold her in my arms and never let her go. I want her to be happy too…_

Kagami's arms strained to hold the pillow any tighter.

 _Could she be happy with someone like me? We aren't very similar, but we've always had chemistry as friends… Is she even looking for someone else in her life? Would she care if it's a girl…_

Kagami tossed and turned, tears slowly starting to form on her face.

 _Come on Kagami._

The little voice in her head spoke.

 _Is this really what a_ lawyer _looks like? Crying when things get tough?_

Kagami rolled to her side, staring up at the picture.

 _Being a lawyer requires the capacity to make tough decisions for the benefit of people's lives going forward. What was it that one lawyer guy in that game said? The toughest of times is when lawyers have to force their biggest smiles?_

Kagami widened her face, forcing her best smile. She tried to put as much honest desire to move forward in her eyes as she straightened her posture, wiping her face off as she did.

 _A lawyer must be able to act quickly and decisively, while also making a solid plan of approach._

 _If that means I need to just talk it over with her, it means I will._

Kagami stood up and picked up her phone, dialing up Konata's number.

Kagami ignored the deafening silences between dial tones as she waited for Konata to pick up.

"Yoooo, Kagami~. What's up?

Kagami swallowed, smiling at the sound of her voice.

"Can I come over to your house on… Sunday? I kinda wanted to hang out and talk, it's kinda cramped in this apartment lately."

Kagami deftly made up an excuse to hang out, not that she really needed one, just trying to ensure nothing got in her way, not even herself.

"Oh sorry! Comiket's this weekend; Patty and I will be out of town. Next weekend is kinda complicated as well. Can I raincheck to… uhhhhh, Sunday the 5th?"

Kagami resisted the urge to be taken aback, knowing that would accomplish nothing, and thought about it, looking at the calendar on her table.

"Yeah that'd be fine, you two enjoy yourselves!"

 _I almost want to tell her not to go, but I can't take something like this away from her when she enjoys it so much. That just wouldn't be right._

"Wait, you wanna come with? We're gonna be camping out on site. I haven't done that in forever!"

Kagami put her face in her hand, smiling.

 _This is so like her._

"Konata, I'm almost certain that's illegal under Tokyo law."

"Yeah, but so many people do it that as long as you are careful about it the cops won't bother you."

 _Yeah, I know. I just wanted to make sure you stay safe._

"Well… if you say so. Just don't get in trouble, alright?" Kagami sighed.

 _Her persistence in this is surprisingly endearing. I just wished she wouldn't go that far with it._

"Alright, see you next Sunday after next then! I'm sure I'll have plenty to show you! It's a date!"

"A date?!"

Konata hung up on her end just before Kagami actually spoke the words.

 _Heh, quick to keep me from getting a word in edgewise. You phrased it like that to mess with me, didn't you?_

Kagami sat down, smiling as she took in the gravity of what she just set up, and the fact that she would have to wait nearly two weeks to see in through…

Kagami let out a breath, stretching in place, trying to do something with herself.

 _Alright, guess I'm doing this the. Talking to her… about us._

"Well, standing around ain't gonna do me any good." Kagami resolutely decided.

"Maybe I could find some advice online or something…"

* * *

 **Sunday, September 5th, 2010**

 **Two Weeks Later**

 **2 PM**

Kagami had spent the last couple weeks looking through forums on and off in her spare time, wondering how to approach confessing. What approach to take. She'd met and talked to a few interesting characters, who helped her come to the conclusion that she was probably okay telling her everything. The advice Kagami heard even had insisted more people were willing to experiment than societal norms would ever suggest, especially with close friends.

They assured her that even if she just says she's not interested in girls, at least she'll be more cognizant about Kagami's feelings.

 _Alright, Kagami, just tell Konata that her actions had made you uncomfortable in the past, but not because you don't like her. Tell her you're interested in taking a step forward in our relationship if she's interested as well, but that staying the same is fine too. Our friendship is more important._

Kagami could see Konata's house in the distance.

 _Konata is_ _laissez-faire_ _enough she'll probably not react poorly, at the very least, to the idea of being approached by a girl. And given the number of fun times we had together, she might very well be willing to experiment._ _I gotta try, at least..._

Kagami nervously knocked at the door, remembering to straighten up before seeing Konata came to greet her.

 _Okay, just smile and be cool._

"Kagami! Come on in! Shame you missed Comiket last weekend. Come on up to my room! I gotta show you something I found!" Konata's expression glowed with her trademark jubilance, and with experience, Kagami could tell she was resisting the urge to jump around in excitement.

 _She's in a good mood, I guess I picked the right day for this._

Kagami took off her shoes and put them next to the large red sneakers at the door.

 _I can feel my heart tensing up._

Kagami stepped up, following Konata into the house

 _Even if she isn't interested, that's okay. We can still be friends._

Konata turned around, her face virtually glowing with happiness as she dragged Kagami to the stairs.

 _The people_ _you spoke with waiting for the happy news, or at least some closure, give them what they want._

Konata pranced up the stairs, while Kagami took each step decisively.

 _Rejection isn't the end. Coming out to a close friend isn't the end of the world._

Konata opened the door to her bedroom.

 _But even rejection is better than the pain of saying nothing._

Kagami stepped through the threshold and-

Sitting on Konata's bed was a young man with short, wavy brown hair, and a vaguely athletic build, no older than Kagami.

He smiled at Kagami with innocent, enthusiastic eyes, waving at her.

Kagami's shoulders slumped deeply.

Konata ran over to the man, tackling him as much as she hugged him, before turning around to give Kagami an enormous smile.

Kagami sharply sucked in a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Kagami! Look who got a boyfriend first!"

The world blurred.

She was introduced to what was by all accounts a nice young man named Hideki.

 _They met at Comiket and… they seemed to really work together. The chemistry was obvious the moment he gave the exact same smile, hugging her back._

Konata told embarrassing tales of the past two weeks to a Kagami who was now only smiling at her best friend's happiness. How they met by chance because of a comic selling out. How they had been meeting up daily...

 _Everything had supposedly been going amazingly. Konata had decided it best to keep it a surprise._

 _They seemed… really happy together…_

 _By all rights, things were going well, if a little fast, something they both freely admitted._

 _Yeah, fast was the right word for it._

 _It should have been obvious, she wasn't interested in me, in girls, but I was too self-centered to see it._

This was all Kagami could think as the buildings darted by her when she left that day.

Running from her problems.

Running was all she could do not to cry.

She wished she could just keep running forever but there were more important things on her plate.

Kagami returned to her apartment later that evening, checking her emails to find pages of unanswered mail from the people who given her advice. They were looking for updates.

Kagami looked at them an empty gaze, drafting a reply to them all.

"She's found someone else. I'm sorry I wasted your time. I have studying to do."

Kagami clicked through the settings on that account and muted it.


	5. Homecoming

**December 25th, 2020, Present Day**

 **Christmas Day**

 **2 PM**

Kagami stepped forward, carefully propping the door open to keep the wine bottle in her grocery bag from knocking into the door **.**

 _Just shake it off, I know you are nervous, but spending all day reminiscing about high school troubles is just gonna make you even more anxious._

"You get the stuff?" Konata said, turning the corner out of their shared room. Konata took the heavy bag from her, setting it down on the floor to rifle through its contents.

"Lay off the snacks for now, you. Picked a movie and thought we could- _hey!_ "

Konata unwrapped a freshly baked choco-cornet, not wasting time as she tore it in half to eat it most effectively.

"Ugh... I know those things are your favorite, but I had to go to 3 different bakeries to find one that still had any this late in the afternoon!" Kagami crossed her arms, smiling at her as she spoke. "At least savor the thing. For me?"

Hearing the words 'for me' apparently was enough to get Konata to slow down, taking her time as she took a bite of the now chocolate dipped tail. A visible shiver ran up her back as she appreciated the fresh baked taste.

"I don't know how the heck you maintain a body that toned when you eat like you do," Kagami said, unconsciously poked at that the uncomfortable pudge at her thigh.

 _That said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little glad you can do that without getting fat like me. Don't exactly make it healthy just how much you eat though. I'd have to cold-turkey you on snacks to get you to stop those...  
_

"Pretty sure it's genetic, a tradeoff for being so tiny," Konata said, savoring the snack with another delighted, cream-filled bite. "Going running in the mornings helps too, but it sucks when it's too icy to actually do it. It makes you feel like you've lost your groove."

Kagami smirked, shifting her weight and knocking snow off her boots.

"Tell that to someone who didn't just walk back and forth across town for the past three hours while you were wrapped up in a blanket!" Kagami said, pulling off her snow boots.

Reaching out, Konata proudly grinned, pointing the head of the cornet at Kagami.

"It just means _you_ get to know even better the joy of being wrapped up in a blanket with your _girlfriend_ , doesn't it?" Konata said, swallowing a bite to give a heart melting smile.

Kagami stared blankly.

"My heart is literally frozen solid right now _,_ gonna have to do better than that," Kagami said, handing over the heavy bag on her arm. "If you wanna try and play my emotions, be a good girlfriend and put the groceries away."

"Such a realist, but that _does_ make living with you a smooth experience," Konata said, hefting the plastic bag off the floor. "By the way, wine, Kagami?"

Kagami looked away, seemingly hiding her face as she spoke.

"I thought tonight we could do something special for Christmas, have a nice fancy dinner. Maybe we should break out those nice dresses we got back in September," Kagami said, putting her coat up on the rack.

"Fancy dinner?" Konata shot across the oom across the room, laughing as she unpacked the back. " You brought me ingredients for fried chicken!"

Kagami shot back an exasperated sigh, forcing out a reply.

"I-it was the most obvious thing, considering it's Christmas, a-and I couldn't find the right ingredients to make anything better considering the holiday rush _and_ find your cornets without leaving town entirely..." Kagami stammered, trying to come up with a good reason they were eating fried chicken today of all days other than-

"You don't need to tell me you just wanted to get inside, it's cold out there! Besides, I was just teasing," Konata said, giggling and waving a hand back and forth dismissively as she finished unpacking the back.

 _I don't know why I still react like that. The mysteries of relationships right there, I guess._

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Besides, it actually sounds pretty tasty. Enjoying the food is probably a better choice, right?" Kagami said, stretching as she walked through the living room to the kitchen. "Especially when you make it with so much love, Konata."

"And cayenne pepper!" Konata said, waving about her personal secret ingredient.

Kagami nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders.

 _Girl can't balance a checkbook, but she can cook. I'm scared of what's become of her dad_ _since she moved out. Without his personal chef- I mean his_ daughter _around to make him something other than cup ramen…_

Kagami smirked at herself.

 _Definitely the right call to let her cook at the party last night. I could swear saw the man cry seeing his daughter cook for him again._

"Anyway," Kagami said, holding up a bluray case reading _Pulp Fiction_ as she walked through the living room. "I picked up an old American crime drama for us tonight. Clerk at the counter said this is an 'ultimate Tarantino classic', whatever that means. Said he was amazed I'd never heard of it considering how many American crime movies I rent."

"Oh, I think I've heard of this one!" Konata said, rushing around the corner excitedly. "A guy gets he head splattered all over the back of-"

"Stop!" Kagami protested, waving her free arm about as she loaded the disk. "Don't spoil it for me, this actually looks good!"

"Alright, alright, but I get the feeling we're gonna like this one," Konata said, flopping down onto the couch with a characteristically small thud, pulling a blanket around herself.

"Definitely," Kagami said, pulling the oversized blanket over herself as well as she curled into her usual place on Konata's shoulder.

"You know, this will at least help you get your mind off of the fried chicken thing," Konata said, rubbing her head into Kagami's.

"Oh quiet, you. It will be delicious at least, knowing your skills," Kagami contested, starting the movie from beneath the blanket.

"Yeah, you can do an American breakfast~" Konata teased, leaning her head atop Kagami's beside her. "Can't cook anything else, can you. You _westaboo~_ "

 _What in the world is a westaboo? Sounds English, but I don't know… Not that's she's wrong about cooking. I ate out enough to make my wallet cry in college, it was convenience store food.  
_

 _I couldn't cook in high school, college, or right now._

Kagami sighed, watching silently as the movie began.

 _College, huh?_

* * *

 ** _A Word from the Author:_**

Hello there! I hope you've been enjoying Kagami's life and times as much as I did planning and writing it.

Unfortunately due to the realities of writing as well as the schedules of my beta readers,

 _I'll be reducing from 2 chapters a week to 1 starting next week._

I know some of you were wondering why I seemingly slowed down my updates, but rest assured, I will remain consistent and to that end,

 _I will be_ committing _to uploading a new chapter every Sunday._

I assure you will not affect story quality if anything it will allow me much more time to polish each chapter as the themes and plot develop.

In the off event I miss Sunday because I felt it was not ready, I will do everything in my power to get that chapter out on Monday morning.

I hope you understand that I and the people helping me need more time to get this into shape.

 _Thank you so much for reading my silly little story._

 _PS. Chapter 6 will two days after I upload this if not the day after I upload this, as we return to the life and times of Hiiragi Kagami: College Student._


	6. Forward Thinking

**Thursday, August 30th, 2011**

 **1 Year After** _ **that**_ **Day**

 **8 PM**

Kagami carefully stepped over a bag of laundry thrown into the middle of the already tight real estate that was her floor space, her cup noodles finally ready to eat.

 _I don't know if I should be glad, or upset that I don't have enough clothes to fill another one… I should get dressed._

Kagami sighed, shoulders drooping with a lack of enthusiasm.

 _What is the point this late at night? It's not like I have any night classes today._

Taking up a spot on the sleeping half of her bed, Kagami nestled against a pile of law books collectively bigger than she was.

Kagami groaned, realizing her mistake.

 _You'd think I'd have learned to put things down first after living here this long..._

Sitting up, Kagami leaned over dangerously far to her desk to place the cup carefully atop a thick textbook and coaster, careful not to spill them yet again.

Retying her haphazard ponytail, Kagami leaned in to press _play_ on her laptop. After all, without it up and out of her eyes she couldn't see her minimum budget entertainment.

 _Okay… where was I?_

 _Kagami's eyes rolled over, trying to recall._

 _I think that guy's not actually a member of the mob, he's actually a cop… or something…_

Rubbing her temples to alleviate the constant eye strain of studying, Kagami struggled to remember. She could recall that the guy at the video store said it was saying about this movie being good.

 _I remember it had been pretty interesting so far, but even with just a few college English course, I can tell these subtitles were a rush job._

Kagami groaned.

 _I don't know if I can get back into this movie again..._

Not knowing what else to do with her night, Kagami looked about her cluttered room.

There was trash bag she hadn't had time to move, her mini fridge was depressingly close to empty, but at least Gyupi's immaculately maintained tank was shining a cheery blue light on the whole affair.

Kagami sighed.

 _I don't expect Gyupi to have anything to say about it… Hmm... maybe Konata does~_

Kagami looked over to the bookshelf, thinking back for a moment when she spotted it.

"Wait, when did it fall over?"

Kagami saw the picture frame flat on its face, still in its own dedicated bookshelf space.

Trying to reach over and correct it, just around Gyupi's tank, Kagami for a brief moment wished this room were slightly smaller, before using the nearby desk to leverage herself to her feet.

Taking the picture off its face and into in her hands, Kagami flashed a snarky smile at her friend.

"Heh. You takking tsu me?" Kagami quoted in a butchered American accent.

"You takking tsu _me?_ " She said, recalling the pose he took.

"Cause' der ain'to anybody else here."

The picture stared back happily, failing to give a snarky reply.

Kagami frowned, putting it back.

"My Engulishu is bad anyway…"

Kagami crossed her arms, trying to smile sardonically.

 _Okay… don't even joke about that. You talk to a goldfish, you'll talk to a picture of your friend_ _if you let yourself start… Sometimes I'm scared I'm just obsessed with her, not actually in love..._

Kagami had taken a minor in English in hopes she'd have a better time with movies and books, but, she hardly had the time for any self-study, outside of the occasional movie.

 _Language learning takes a lot more immersion than people give credit. It's amazing how everyone can be surrounded by so much English and hardly even know any… I just wish I had more time for that or any of my hobbies for that matter. I haven't even touched a light novel in months, only read about them online..._

Kagami put her hands in her pockets, defeated, before pulling out her flip phone.

The LCD read August 30th.

 _Already been a whole year, but it still doesn't feel real. What does Konata think she's doing…_

Kagami put her hand around her chin and began to pace into the kitchenette, knowing perfectly how not to stub her toe on the step up to the kitchen tile.

 _I wonder why Konata never invited me to Comiket this year…_

Kagami removed her hand, crossing her arms.

 _Oh right, she's involved with that guy, how could I possibly forget…_ Kagami thought sarcastically.

Kagami ran her fingers through her hair if anything just to do something with them.

 _A whole year..._

Not even three months after Konata met Hideki, Konata had dropped out of college to move in with Hideki in Yokohama. All the way to the other side of Tokyo.

Kagami's eyes focused, brows burrowing between her eyes as intense feelings bubbled to the surface.

 _God, I can still feel the heat on my skin from being so furious with her! She hadn't even known him half a year yet and they were already moving in with each other! What the_ hell?!

Kagami kicked the laundry bag, sending it flying briefly across the room and sending Gyupi fleeing into his castle.

 _Where do you get off saying you "aren't really going anywhere with school" anyway?! Cutting into your relationship time?! What about everyone else!?_

Kagami scowled, letting the heat simmer off for a moment as she reached out to console her cowering pet.

 _There I go getting mad and hitting things again…_

"Sorry, Gyupi... I didn't mean to scare you... please come out." Kagami said, to no avail; Gyupi only briefly poking his head out to the gesture before hiding again.

Kagami's face tightened guiltily.

 _It's not like I'm free of blame here, but I'm not sure who I blame more. Konata for making such an asinine decision, Hideki for_ letting _her make it, or me for not keeping in contact enough to object before she finalized the decision._

Kagami's eyes fixed to tile at her feet, unsure what to think anymore.

 _From the half a dozen times I met the guy, I'm sure his love for her is more than skin de_ _ep, but that way he holds onto her is just so..._

Kagami's eyes drifted to the side as if trying to ignore her own thoughts.

 _It's just… You rushed into this relationship so fast it might have hurt your future, girl…_

Kagami wandered back took a seat on her began idly smoothing out the wrinkles in the sheets with her hands.

 _I just want to talk this over with you. I don't know how I would do it, but I want to try. But how can I when you hardly respond to my texts anymore… You haven't tried to reach out to me in months._

Kagami leaned sideways uncomfortably, without a nearby wall to put her weight on.

 _I know it's just because you two are really focusing on your relationship, but I can't help but be worried._

It seemed like Kagami wasn't the only one being ignored. Tsukasa said she was receiving fewer and fewer texts from Konata anymore, same with Kou and Misao.

 _I even heard second hand your otaku friends are hearing less and less of you... Konata I thought I could think of us as closer friends than this, but… knowing I'm not being singled out here does help at least._

Kagami put her face into her hands

 _It's not like I can really complain. I'm too busy to stay in constant contact with anyone either. Not if I want to actually be able to practice law before I'm_ _28_ _._

"Still," Kagami said aloud if only to hear someone. "You could at least respond to some of those months old texts, Konata…"

Opening up her phone again, her heart ached a little as she took in her phone background, at a picture she took with the short weirdo. Kagami couldn't remember where or when it was taken, other than during high school.

Kagami raised her head, straightening her back.

 _It's not like there is anything I can really do. I'm just gonna drive myself insane if I dwell on it._

Kagami sighed as she looked at the sad state of her desk. Books three layers deep, and a forgotten cup of noodles.

Kagami grabbed the cup and held it. It had long since cold, her movie played unwatched in the background.

 _I know I have better things to do than think about it I just..._

 _I… I just want to hear your voice again… I want to know you're doing well..._


	7. Old Friends

**Sunday, January 22nd, 2012**

 **5 Months Later**

 **6 PM**

Kagami looked over her shoulder, careful not to spill her depressingly expensive latte. Behind her was the CAFE sign, stuck broadly across the wall in big blue English letters.

 _The sign is just sort of a constant here, isn't it?_

Kagami laughed to herself, setting down her prized drink.

 _I can't help but giggle at how matter-of-fact a lot of English signage has started to feel since I started studying the language. Like people just want to sound smart or something.  
_

Kagami crossed her arms, satisfied with her own brilliance.

She'd come to the Good Morning Cafe for the same reason she always did; to spend money she didn't have because staying in that tiny apartment surrounded by law books was going to drive her insane if she kept it up.

 _Not really much of a cafe though. I mean, this latte is about the most "coffee house" thing this place has,_ Kagami thought recalling the English definition being closer to 'coffeehouse' than 'restaurant that happens to serve coffee'. _Least their sandwiches and drinks are nice._

 _Nothing like walking off the train and deciding, "I'm an adult, and I'm gonna go out to eat like an adult today!" instead of going back to a cramped apartment..._

Kagami smiled sardonically.

"I am become adult, watcher of budgets."

Kagami laughed, leaning back as she took another sip of her liquid pick-me-up.

 _I really should be studying for that final, but that can wait until I've at least finished the last of this thing. Not on my budget, but definitely in my belly. Exactly what I need on a cold winter day._

Just beginning to knock back another bitter, warming sip, Kagami saw her phone vibrate on the table with an incoming text.

 _Probably another sales thing. I wish they would stop… wait. Huh? Isn't that a Saitama area code? Guess I should check it. Maybe Tsukasa lost her phone again._

Flipping her phone open, she found the number to belong to-

… _Patricia Martin?_

Kagami cocked an eyebrow, the name having not come up in years.

 _The exchange student? Is she still living in Saitama? I'd have thought she would have moved home by now. I mean she's in her early twenties like me at this point. You'd think her parents would miss their daughter being away for more than six years._

Kagami tilted her head back, scratching it as she recalled the short haired girl.

 _Oh right, I think Konata mentioned something about this. About Patricia_ _extending her stay_ _with the Izumi's when received an offer for a cultural scholarship._ Her _of all people got a_ free ride _,_ and _for_ cultural arts _. Little miss yaoi. Guess it shows you can't judge a book by its cover, I guess._

Kagami pondered the absurdity of Patricia's life situation for a moment until her eyes ran across the message itself.

'Hey there Kagami, long time no talk! I know this is a bit serious sounding, but can you please call me when you get a chance? It's important. I know we never talked much, so this must sound a little weird, but-'

Kagami's neck stiffened, hands clamping down on her phone.

'-it's about Konata-chan.'

 _It's about Konata? Wha-what's that supposed to mean? Did something happen? Is she all right?!_

Not taking the time to think, Kagami left the rest of her coffee and walked up to the bartender, telling her she just got an important call and to put her order on her tab.

With a nod from the short-haired woman, Kagami zipped up her heavy winter coat and stepped outside, ringing the bell on the door as she pushed. Thankfully, the snow from last night had long since stopped, leaving only piles of partially shoveled white powder.

Keying up the number and ignoring the wind, Kagami tensely tapped her booted foot at the dial tone.

"Kagami-chan! Long time no talk, how you bee-"

" _What happened!?_ "

Kagami clasped a gloved hand over her mouth, having spoken out of turn.

"Oh, Konata-chan?" Patricia said, accent making it difficult to tell if she ignored the misstep or was addressing it. "She's okay. She's, well, she's moved back home."

Kagami's balance weakened; her face drooped.

"Patricia, did something happen? W-why is she not telling me this herself!?"

There was an eerie quiet as Patricia made some kind of noise, apparently considering the question.

 _Please just answer the-_

"Wow, Kagami-chan. Perceptive! Sorry for not getting to the point faster, but it sounds like you want to know the details. I was only being asked to relay to friends that she was back in town, but you sound super concerned right now."

Patricia spoke in her usual strangely intonated voice.

 _Your accent is so grating right now! Don't give me the roundabout!_

Kagami winced at her own internal monologue.

 _I-I, can't believe I'd react like that..._

"I'm, sorry for snapping at you, Patricia. You just, you called me up out of the blue about this, and I was worried something bad might have happened."

"Well, you aren't really wrong that something bad happened." Patricia, accent still emotionally inscrutable.

Kagami felt a cold sweat come on, face tightening. Seizing the initiative, Kagami spoke.

"Why did Konata move back?" Kagami said, starting as almost a whisper, and ending on a resolute question. It was at that moment that the gears began to turn.

"Konata and Hideki, they broke up last month. She's been delaying getting in contact with friends about her return home, so her dad and I decided to do it for her."

Kagami's eyes went wide. She'd long since forgotten the cold, struggling not to snap back at her with a sharp question of what he might have done to her.

"Last month?!" Kagami reacted, pausing if only to keep her composure. "D-did something happens between them?"

"Well, sorta? They realized things weren't working out and, well, they decided to go their separate ways."

"Particulars? Details? Why did they break up a whole month ago?! I'm only hearing this now?!" Kagami insisted, her voice more scared than forceful.

The line went silent for a moment, Patricia apparently pondering the question.

"Kagami, can I ask something of you?" Patricia said, uncharacteristically seriously. "Will you ask Konata that question yourself when she's ready?"

 _I knew it!_

"Something _did_ happen!" Kagami nearly shouted, glad there was no one nearby.

"Look, Kagami-chan. She's fine for now, I assure you. She's moved back and adjusted well to living at home again, I've personally made sure of that. I'm sorry if I concerned you with anything I said, but Konata needs some time." Patricia sighed, some obvious strain audible even through her bizarre accent.

"I didn't intend on telling more than she was back in town," Patricia continued. "I'm really sorry if this makes you feel like you aren't doing anything, but I just need you to know that she really is fine. Believe me, I've known her as long as you have."

She wasn't wrong. Maybe not chronologically, but she'd lived under the same roof with Konata for years.

 _Some part of me is envious, but this isn't the time._

"She still talks about you, Kagami-chan. She still talks about everyone, but you quite a lot. She just needs some time alone is all."

Kagami let out a ragged breath, holding a gloved hand to her windbitten face.

 _This is too much to take… I suppose I should just wait until I have a better chance, talk to he when she's ready like Patricia suggested… At least I know she's okay._

"Th-thank you for calling to tell me this," Kagami spoke, her voice wavering between relief and weariness. "Whenever she's ready… tell her I'm… honestly, I want to say confused and sad, but if she needs time she can… she can have it."

Kagami struggled to let out a coherent thought, the words seemingly spilling out on their own.

"Patricia… _Patty_ … It's nice talking to you again," Kagami said, being careful not to shoot the messenger. "I miss talking to everyone with all this studying. Also, tell her I'm- _we_ all care for her. We're there if she needs someone. I just wish I could talk to her right now is all."

"You bet I can, _girlfriend_ _!"_ Patty said, accenting with a drop of unnecessary English. "She'll be right as rain in no time, trust me on that!"

"Thanks… bye, Patty..."

"Bye girl!"

The line closed with a beep, leaving Kagami to her thoughts. Kagami flipped her phone closed with a flick of her wrist, letting out a breath of hot white air into the biting cold.

She hoped she didn't sound like she was trying to catch Konata on the rebound, or at least Kagami thought that until she shook the silly idea from her head.

 _Why did I react so poorly when something clearly happened to her? That wasn't the time for that._

It was at that moment Kagami noticed she had started to cry at some point during that call.

Wiping the tears from her face, Kagami shivered, not at the cold, but at her somewhat misplaced joy.

 _I know I shouldn't be glad anything happened between those two, and it's gonna be hard waiting for a chance to talk to her…_

 _But I miss my friends..._


	8. The Day that Never Ended

**Saturday September 7th, 2013**

 **20 Months Later**

 **11 AM**

Kagami yawned, stretching her arms outward the same way she always did to avoid punching the stacks of books against the wall holding her bedsheets down.

Swiping the the touch screen on her phone, probably the most expensive thing she owned short of her aging laptop, Kagami silenced her dumb alarm tone for the third time this morning.

Kagami silenced her phone's alarm with an awkward swipe, unused to touchscreens.

 _I swear this thing's alarms are designed to be catchy at first, but annoying later. Guh… all of the available alarms tones I've tried are like that._

Kagami groaned, sitting up to rub her eyes.

 _Too bad I can't sync that clock to my internal one. I just wanted to sleep in_ for once _. Here I go having to go back to sleep three different times to get my wish…_

Gingerly setting her new and expensive device on top of a ever growing pile of law books, Kagami idly wondered what she was going to do with her free Saturday.

 _I could try bowling…? No, that's boring alone,_ Kagami thought, rising out of bed to begin her day.

 _Maybe I could go drinking? Nah, too expensive, not when the selection is geared to make you buy food to go with it. Guess I'll just get coffee and decide there._

Just finding her standing legs after so many hours of being sedentary, Kagami pulled back the shades, only almost fall backwards. Dazzling streams of light cast in setting the room in a blinding glare.

 _This is why I don't wake up so late… Why is the sun_ right _there…_

Reclosing the shades, Kagami awkwardly leaned over her desk to open them half way from the other size.

Unpleased with the change, awkwardly leaned over her desk to reclose the blinds again. Pulling them to the side, Kagami stopped halfway, preventing the harsh light from hitting her fishtank.

 _Yeah, it's so bright if I leave them open all the way I'll probably just upset Gyupi. Ugh… what is with all the heat and sun lately? Where the hell is fall? It's already September..._

Opening her sad excuse for a closet, Kagami dropped the half of her pajamas she could stand to wear in this heat. Pulling herself into a more summer appropriate shirt and khaki shorts, Kagami did an embarrassing jig as she dressed.

Kagami looked over her shoulder at the door. Not really expecting anyone but deciding she felt more secure anyway.

 _Yup, no one saw that dance at least... Only_ Guypi _is allowed to appreciate these… terrible moves. I wish I owned something a bit more… idk what the word is… Revealing? If only for heat concerns. I miss that green tanktop._

 _Kagami's shoulders dipped, depressed._

 _Oh well, I'm sure someone smaller than me enjoying their donation… I miss my old clothes. Getting older sucks…_

Sliding her phone into her pocket with a final, emphatic swing of the hips, Kagami made to step into the raised floor kitchen floor only to be startled by her phone buzzing.

 _Probably Tsukasa asking for boyfriend advice again. At least it means she's trying to maintain a healthy relationship, even if she knows full well she has more experience than I do._

Awkwardly pulling her phone from her back pocket, Kagami shrugged.

 _I swear she'd be lost half a dozen different ways if she didn't have her phone. I just wish she wasn't such a mail demon anymore. Send fewer, bigger messages, please!_

Kagami nodded as she read that it was, indeed, Tsukasa, up early for work.

Her face suddenly growing intense, Kagami's eyes opened wide at the picture attached to the email and the text superimposed on it.

' _Hey Kagami! Look who I bumped into!'_

 **September 7th, 2013**

 **3 Hours Later**

 **1 PM**

Kagami fidgeted in her usual seat below the CAFE sign at the back wall of the restaurant. She didn't take her eyes off of the picture on her phone since she had arrived. Konata was holding Tsukasa by her shoulder, taking a selfie at arms length with her.

Konata had apparently bumped into Tsukasa while she was out jogging.

 _Guh, why am I focusing on Konata so much! It was Tsukasa, your own twin sister, who sent you the darn thing. I should be happy Tsukasa bumped into an old friend and got some time to hang out instead of scrutinizing Konata for even being present in the picture. I'm sure she'd like to hang out with Konata as well…_

Kagami's eyes suddenly darted left awkwardly, realizing her mistake.

 _Crap, how do I keep forgetting she_ lives _near her. She's probably unceremoniously talked to her in the past._

Kagami let out a strained, frustrated breath, confused that she was getting upset if anything.

 _Why am I making such a big deal of this?!_

Kagami rapidly tapped her foot on the floor, anxiously going over the facts again.

 _It just all happened so fast; I called Tsukasa up and was glad Konata was still there. It's all kinda blurring together. Since when does Konata go jogging?! She was obviously out of breath, and with that getup… Given that loose, multi-colored tank top and all the sweatbands she was wearing, I'm inclined to think the jogging thing wasn't an elaborate joke at the very least._

Talking over the phone, Konata apparently had nothing to do today and volunteered to come out to Tokyo and hang out.

 _I can hardly believe it. She actually wants to hang out, and I didn't even have to ask! How great is that?_ Kagami thought, strain melting to a smile on her face.

Kagami had given her the name of a cafe and Konata said she'd looked up directions. It was a good hour of train riding away. She still had to jog all the way back home from the shrine to shower off and change so she said she'd be there by one at the earliest.

Kagami leaned back, tempering her excitement with a deep stretch as she continued to watch the door for her arrival.

 _I don't know what I believe less—that this is actually happening, or Konata exercising on purpose._

Kagami grinned to herself at the thought, partly hiding her face with her hand.

Kagami reflexively looked over herself again. She was looking forward to seeing her in person again and, to that end, Kagami had elected to throw on a fashionable little sleeveless vest and a little makeup on before heading out.

 _All this coffee is making me jittery._ _I hope this getup is fine…_ _In retrospect, I probably should have been ordering ice tea from the start if I wanted to come early._

Kagami leaned her head back into her hands awkwardly, wondering about that.

 _Well, it might not be the coffee, though. It might just be stress. Still, it's not like I'm planning to confess again or anything, though._

Kagami's eyes snapped to the door, bell hanging off of it ringing.

 _You know you can stop doing that, it's just gonna make you look weird when she-_

Kagami saw Konata at the door, suddenly overcome with excitement as Konata looked about .

 _Okay, calm down. Don't look weird. Just be cool; this isn't any different than when you used to meet her._

Putting on her best lawyer smile, Kagami sat patiently as the woman at the bar pointed Konata to the far wall. With a skip in her step, Koanta came running, a smile plastered on her face.

"Kagami! How's my favorite tsun-…!?"

Konata eyes shot open with disappointed confsuion, sucking in a breath dramatically as she pointed a finger at Kagami.

"You lost your twintails!" Konata nearly shouted, throwing her arms in the air dramatically to pull her own hair into a hasty imitation of the hair doo

"What'd you go and do a thing like losing your biggest moe point for?!"

Kagami's shoulders visibly untensed, a smile washing over her

Kagami's shoulders fell, dumb smile like one she hadn't given in years washing over her face at the spectacle before her...

 _Now_ that's _the Konata I know and love._

"Well, nice to see you too... I'm trying to impress law professors, thank you very much, " Kagami said, beating Konata to the obvious comparison as Kagami suppressed an even bigger smile.

"Who knows? A tsundere lawyer sounds like something out of a Gyakuten Saiban game." Konata said, enthusiasm obvious in her voice. "I'd play that in a heartbeat!"

Kagami let out a breath, smiling as she gestured to a chair with her arm.

"I probably would too. Thanks for introducing me to those games, by the way," Kagami said ,moving her arms about as if she didn't know what to do with them.

Konata pulled up a chair, sitting across from her in a tank top different from the one in the picture, and without the sweatbands she was wearing before.

Also different were glasses; underframes in a understated red that went surprisingly well with her natural blue hair.

 _That said, I don't think it was fashion that lead her to get those. I recognise that design from light novel covers… Must be an otaku thing_ _. I'm pretty sure she probably only wears them indoors or something given she wasn't wearing them in the photo earlier, though..._

Looking at her up close, Kagami could tell she wasn't kidding about jogging. She was obviously in better shape than Kagami had ever seen her in before. She was always a natural athlete, but Kagami had never really considered how actually _trying_ might change her figure.

The change was subtle. Her legs and arms more defined, without any pudge to be seen. Her posture was straighter and stronger. All these subtle changes, Kagami could almost swear she was a little taller, but given the years since they had last seen one another Kagami couldn't be sure if it was just her imagination.

 _I'm just glad you haven't gained weight or anything. It's good to know she's taking care of herself_

"You know, some guys will pay good money to stare that much." Konata peered through her glasses, adjusting them by the arm with a flick and a grin.

"I, uh, sorry I didn't mean to. I mean, it's just you look good. I mean, like, you've obviously been working out a little."

Kagami looked off to the side, embarrassed by the social misstep, but knowing her company she was sure it would be fine.

"Yeah, Patty and I have been going on jogs every morning since last February," Konata said, self-satisfied grin and crossed arms enough to sell it all. "She calls it her 'cosplay training regime!'"

Konata quickly eyed over Kagami with a smirk.

"Speaking of change, _wow_ , Kagami, you've gotten taller! Taller than Tsukasa at least."

Kagami winced at little at what should have been a compliment.

 _I wish I hadn't… I can't afford new clothes..._

"Well, it's not like you've gotten any shorter, heh," Kagami shot back, teasing playfully.

Konata's expression tightened, almost faster that Kagami could notice.

"Also your _boobs_ got bigger while I wasn't around," Konata said, smirking as she emphasized her lilt on the most embarrassing word.

Kagami hid her mouth and face, sighing, but secretly smiling beneath her hand.

"How did I know you were gonna go there…?"

 _It's a little embarrassing, but at least this means that Konata is in high spirits. I can't ask for anything more._

 **September 7th, 2013**

 **4 Hours Later**

 **5 PM**

"And it was just so stinky! Like, what could even do that?!"

They'd talked about all sorts of things, from the weather to dinner when they'd gotten all through the obligatory "How have you been doing?" phase of catching up.

Catching up and talking about inconsequential things took Kagami back to the years of doing the same in high school and before she started to focus on college.

 _Simpler times._

 _It seemed like it would go on forever back then, it just feels like a drop in the bucket now..._

Living alone was taking a toll on Kagami, but Konata had apparently fully reintegrated with everyone that hadn't moved away or gone elsewhere. But happy as she was….

 _I figure it can't hurt to ask. She looks fine to me._

"So, Konata," Kagami started, carefully steering the conversation. "Patty asked me something a while back."

"Patty? What'd she say?" Konata said, turning her head quizzically.

"A while back, she told me to ask you if everything was really okay when you were ready."

Kagami suddenly felt a wave of discomfort wash over her.

 _Uh… I didn't really consider if she wanted to talk about it before I said that… should I-_

Before Kagami could reconsider, Konata stiffened, almost turning away before stopping just short of it.

"She… Yeah, that definitely sounds like her,." Konata broke eye contact, her eyes preferring the sandwich in front of her.

There was an obvious air of awkwardness hanging above them, the pair sitting silently in their chairs.

"If you don't want to talk about it Konata, that's fine, I mean—" Kagami started, only to be interrupted by Konata raising a pointing finger urging her to stop.

"No. If it's you, it's alright." Konata suddenly spoke, voice just noticeably quavering as she quietly spoke. "I know you well enough. You are my friend."

The words 'You are my friend.' hung eerily between them after she spoke, seeming to carry connotations Kagami couldn't identify.

"Konata, is something wrong?" Kagami surreptitiously asked, leaning over slightly.

"Yeah… honestly a little," Konata said, voice flat, lacking it usual flourish. "It's about me and Hideki."

An image of the former pair sitting on Konata's bed that day wormed itself into Kagami's mind.

"Is it okay if I say something personal. Like, _really_ personal?" Konata said, shaking a little from obviously suppressed emotion.

 _Wow, if she's asking permission it must be something big…_

Kagami gulped and nodded, making sure Konata was looking to see.

"Kagami… me and Hideki went through a rough patch for a good month. We were worried I-"

Konata suddenly stopped mid sentence, seemingly debating if she was going to say something.

 _Worried you were what?!_

Kagami leaned forward reflectively, hands nervously playing with her hair. Kagami had no idea what expect as she scrutinized Koanta in front of her.

Konata swallowed, stiffening her shoulders and turning her head to Kagami. Konata's eyes moved to meet with Kagami's, before painfully darting down, settling on the table between them. When she spoke, it came in a low monotone, as if she were trying to divorce the emotion from her words.

"Things got out of control between us, I said something really stupid, and for a few weeks we were scared we were pregnant…"

Kagami slowly digested the words, unsure where to even begin unpacking the implications.

 _You two thought you were going to have a child…_ _?_

Kagami's eyes drifted over Konata. The notion of Konata as a parent had never crossed her mind before. Bringing her hands to her lap, Kagami fidgeted, not having any idea what to think.

"It ended up being nothing, thank god," Konata said, pained smile stretched across her face. "But we did a lot of talking and…"

Konata's voice began to trail off, looking away for a moment.

The moment stretched on for a seeming eternity, that heartbreaking forced smile killing Kagami, much as she tried to hide it from Konata.

Konata continued to stare at the table, not seemingly out of any sense of confusion, but something else, some deeper emotion that pulled at Kagami.

Turning her head back up to the exhaustion was made obvious by Konata's growing crestfallen expression as she spoke.

"Until we decided it wasn't gonna work out." Konata said, words heavy as spoke them.

Another silence stood between them, only sharing a look of an old, concerned friend and a tired gaze of someone who had seen unspoken troubles.

"Konata," Kagami reluctantly, deciding if it was too weird to ask to hug her instead of speaking. "I'm so sorry this ha-"

"But enough sobby talk!" Konata suddenly interrupted, suddenly scarfing down the rest of her sandwich.

"Let's hit a bar or something!" Konata said with a smile, tousling her own hair to wildly as if to pull herself together.

Kagami blinked, eyes widening at the sudden change in atmosphere.

 _What…? She... She doesn't want to talk about it…_

Kagami blinked again, looking at her old pal stretching an arm behind her back and smiling enthusiastically, as if trying to pep herself up.

 _I guess that's understandable... I just... She was just so..._

Kagami resisted letting her shoulder slump in disappointment. She said, intent on carrying the shift in mood Konata was so obviously intent on.

 _I guess I… I'll respect her privacy. She obviously didn't want to go into details..._

"Hit a bar, huh? Well, what the heck," Kagami said, forcing the gears in her head to turn to match her enthusiasm. "There is this great place nearby. I've only been in there a few times because of money, but today is a day for celebration!"

 _I really hope she's okay, but I now isn't the time. For now, let's just have fun. We can talk over the details another day._

 **September 7th, 2013**

 **1 Hour Later**

 **6PM**

"Kampai!"

The pair slammed their second round together, causing Konata to spill hers partially.

Watching the drink spread across the wooden table of their private booth, they looked at each other, electing to share a hearty laugh.

"You're not even on your second glass, you lightweight!" Kagami jeered, sipping her ale of choice.

"You try drinking under fifty kilo! I managed-" Konata belched a little, her face flushing. "I managed to _gain_ weight jogging. Diet and eckes-exs… expert- running around made me _put on_ weight. What the hell kind of backwards world is this where you can get heavier from this?!"

Konata set her glass down before her head connected loudly with the table, defeated.

"Come on, Konata, be more careful. You're gonna spill it again," Kagami said, grinning as she casually leaned an elbow onto the table.

Konata for her part seemed vaguely offended at Kagami's advice, tilting her head up to look at Kagami.

"You're no fun, Kagami. I was doing that cause it's _fun_ , duh!" Konata said, turning her head up at an awkward angle. "Even in college, you haven't learned to live it up. All you do is study study study! You can't live like a hermit!"

"You!" Konata pointed her free hand at Kagami.

"Live!" Konata straightened her arm, uncurling her hand into a point.

"In! "Konata moved her head forward, focusing through the vague glassiness of her drunken stupor.

" _Tokyo_! City of opportunity!" Konata said, at this point leaning halfway over the table as she finished her enthusiastic proclamation.

Kagami, letting her inhibitions get the better of her, leaned forward onto the table, grabbing a yakitori skewer, grinning mischievously.

"What makes _you_ any different?" Kagami said, smiling as she pointed the skewer at Konata. "You've been cooped up in your house the past two years."

Konata found her way back into her seat, pushing away plates for enough real-estate to place to rest on the table again, hair scarily close to her spilled drink.

"Patty's been keeping me busy, I assure you," Konata said, face depressed into the polished wood table. "Though, maybe not as much as she used to."

"Oh yeah, how'd she used to keep you _company_?" Kagami said, the jeering lilt in her voice making the lewd implication clear.

"Cuddling mostly," Konata said casually, face flush with alcohol. "Sometimes sex. It got messy sometimes…"

"Yeah, I'm sure you two did!" Kagami said, taking a bite and chewing thoughtfully.

Konata sat up, face red from lying down with a vague look of confusion in her eyes.

 _So they had sex huh…_ Kagami thought, savoring the charred flavor as she absentmindedly considered the idea.

 _Good for them…_

Kagami took another bite.

Kagami's eyes suddenly shot to Konata, the pin finally dropping in her mind. Instinctively taking a sharp breath, Kagami accidentally inhaled her food, to Konata's sudden horror.

Slamming a fist onto the table, Kagami coughed frustratedly. Her mind was torn between the two imperatives of forcing the hunk of meat from her airway and taking in the breath needed to ask a for a desperately needed clarification.

"Holy crap, Kagami! Are you alright?!" Konata frantically leaned over the table as Kagami coughed it out into a napkin.

" _I'm—I'm—you—she—You both what?!"_ Kagami stammered out a distressed question, struggling to breath.

The wheels in Kagami's head spun meaninglessly, trying to parse this new information.

"Oh." Konata said, flatly sat back in her seat, confusion on her face before she settled into a passive "Eh."

Konata shrugged her shoulders casually.

"Patty was there for me. I was crying a lot when I moved back in. Well, one thing lead to another and we started dating." Konata said, eyes wandering as she reminisced, swirling the drink in her glass as she did so.

Kagami's face contorted is desperate shock, arms pressed into the booth around her at odd angles.

"Dating?! You? With her? _Two girls?!_ Dating?" Kagami struggled to produce a coherent thought, Konata's lax drunkenness making it even harder for Kagami to maintain her composure. "Since when was Patty into _girls_?! Since, when were… _You_ …?"

Kagami slowly murmured those last words, still trying to catch up with the rush of information. The implication coming into focus.

"Oh, Patty? She just likes cute things. Girls, boys—she says it doesn't really matter to her just as long as she likes hanging out with them." Konata said, nonchalantly adjusting her glasses in a way that only served to further confuse a ragged Kagami. "I was crying on her shoulder one day complaining about how I didn't like sleeping alone anymore, how it felt wrong not being in a relationship anymore, and she asked if I'd like to date her so we could sleep together. I didn't see the harm, I guess."

Konata's face flushed with more than alcohol as Kagami's confusion only intensified further.

"Though sleeping with perhaps became more like _laying_ with after a while," Konata said, lewd grin at the corner of her mouth, turning to her side as if Patty were sitting with them. "She really thought I needed the company. She was probably right. _Such a good friend_."

 _Such a good friend… Such a good friend. Such a—_

Kagami slammed both arms down onto the table. She needed some kind of outlet, she just needed to do something _—anything—_ right now.

"Konata, do you have _any_ idea what you are saying to me?" Kagami stammered, wanting desperately to clear up whatever was going on right now. "You and her, you are…"

Kagami thought back to that website and the subjects she discussed with the people that reached out to her.

"Does… this make you both bisexual or something?" Kagami said, deciding to start here just to have a place to begin.

"I, I guess?" Konata said a little perplexed by the question. "I mean, sorta? Honestly I don't really try to think about it. We were happy while we were dating. Didn't last more than a few months, but she helped me out when I needed it. Seems like it would just overcomplicate things if I started asking questions. Or at least that was the advice Patty gave me."

Kagami buried her face in her hands, the information seemingly refusing to parse in her head.

"But why are you _telling me this_? Isn't this like super personal or something!?" Kagami pressed, smelling the alcohol on her own breath as she spoke.

"It's not a big deal if it's you, Kagami," Konata said, waving a hand back and forth as if to dismiss the notion. "No sweat, no sweat!"

"But it _is_ a big deal, you bonehead!" Kagami insisted, voice cracking under the strain.

 _I have no idea where I'm going with this and frankly I'm scared to think about it._

"Wo- _oah_ , Kagami!" Konata teased, leaning over to grab her half full second mug." I'd never have taken you for the type that would rag on something like that!"

Kagami's faice strained, clawing for a response.

 _I'd never mean that I just… this is all just..._

"No it's not that, it's just…." Kagami said, fingers burying themselves in her hair as a blush traveled up her face, the revelation inescapable.

 _It's that I know you are single and into girls. Konata is single, and dated a woman._ _Konata is a girl who is free._

"I don't know what you are thinking about over there, Kagami," Konata said, picking up some yakitori herself as she slid it off the skewer, "but your drink is getting warm and the food cold."

Kagami sighed, eyes straining at this of day at the constant stream of revelations.

"Right… just… stay hydrated?" Kagami said, having no idea how to feel right now.

 _I- I guess I just make_ _small talk for the rest the night and let her talk about her exe…_ _Ex_ es _. Plural…_

 _Is this…? Does she really not see this as that strange? She slept with a girl…_

Kagami's shoulders slumped as a drunk Konata happily chewed her food, not a hint of of regret or agony or confusion Kagami might have felt if she had said anything resembling what Konata just mentioned off-hand.

Kagami put her face in her hands, not knowing what else to do..

 _Was I just worrying too much? Did Konata go through a period of not knowing how to feel either? Why didn't things work out? Was it because she was a girl? They seem to still be friends so it probably wasn't anything bad. How does it feel to sleep next to someone you love…._

Questions raced through Kagami's head dizzyingly fast.

Then it hit her.

 _If she can talk to me about this… if I just don't mention my feelings… someday… can I talk about my interest in women with her?_

Kagami looked at her drink, reconsidering ordering another glass.

 **September 8th 2013**

 **8 Hours later**

 **2AM**

Kagami carefully walked Konata into her apartment, Konata only making it through the door by way of Kagami's far less addled posture.

"Seeeeee? That's how you live it up, Kagami-sama!" Konata cheered, taking a less than careful step forward as the door closed behind her.

"C-can you please stop calling me that, Konata? And while you are at it, can you _not_ break into song?" Kagami said, making sure Konata was well enough to not fall over as she let her go. "We left the karaoke place half an hour ago. My walls are thin and I'm not supposed to have overnight visitors..."

Kagami had no choice. Neither of them could afford a taxi after all the fun they had tonight, and they had managed to stay out until the trains shut down for the night. Without any money to stay anywhere else, Konata had insisted she stay at Kagami's since she knew it was within walking distance.

 _Nevermind just finding an ATM, she insisted on this..._

Kagami took a careful step forward past Konata to make some amount of space as Konata drunkenly wrestled with her shoelaces.

Kagami looked over her room, suppressing a scowl at her own laziness.

 _Ugh, it's an absolute mess in here…_ _If only I knew this would happen. I could have tidied up a bit, or at least taken the trash out…_

Stepping over said trash, Kagami thanked herself for frivolously buying a second pillow at one point.

 _Maybe I can fashion the winter comforter into a makeshift futon or something..._

"WOAH! GYUPI GOT HUGE!" Konata shouted, stumbling over to the glowing blue tank.

"Shhhhhh! If someone complains, they are gonna kick you out," Kagami whispered, just loud enough to ensure she wouldn't be ignored.

Konata marveled at the fishtank, apparently having the presence of mind not to touch the tank as she fawned at Kagami's beloved pet.

"Kagami," Konata said, turning to smile broadly. "Your apartment is so cozy!"

Kagami grinned smarmily.

 _Yup, she's drunk. It's the only reason anyone could possibly think that._

Pulling the comforter out, Kagami wondered if it was warm enough to just sleep without a blanket. Maybe she could just roll up in the comforter?

Konata began to cry exaggeratedly.

"The picture!" Konata had their graduation photo, shakily holding it from the top to show Kagami. "You _kept_ it! I always knew you were a good friend, Kagami!"

Kagami looked at her friend, feeling a bemused smile tugging at her lips as Konata gestured towards the picture.

Apparently not satisfied, Konata moved in, wrapping her arms around Kagami before she could protest.

"Hey, cut it out, that's…!"

Kagami wanted to say uncomfortable, but it wasn't. It was more that this was the first physical contact she'd had with Konata in years.

A soft, natural smile crept up Kagami's face, as she reached to pat the head resting just below her chin. Kagami really _had_ gotten taller, hadn't she?

Kagami moved in, gradually shifting her some of her weight onto the wobbly Konata.

 _I… can't remember the last time I held her like this…_

Kagami pulled her into a tight squeeze, Konata reciprocating as the picture tumbled from her hands.

 _Is this wrong? Am I taking advantage of her because she's drunk?_

Kagami felt Konata nestle herself into Kagami's collar, her arms pressing hard into Kagami's sides

 _No, she just really needs a hug is all. After everything she's been through, I'd need a hug too._

Kagami felt Konata's weight shift, leaning everything in her tiny frame onto Kagami.

 _But if this is how I can be for her, she can hug me whenever she wants._

Kagami gently smiled, patting Konata on the head. The simple action only extended the silence, until Konata began weeping.

"There there, I'm here." Kagami spoke, a simple gentleness only leading Konata's deceptively strong frame to hug her tighter.

They stood there, untold time passing until patting progressed into running fingers through Konata's hair. Konata's cries had gradually progressed into sobbing, but by now calmed into a gentle weep.

It wasn't the first time she'd cried in her state tonight, but as it continued something was... _deeper_ about it.

A silence set in, Konata's sobs ending entirely.

An eerie amount of time passed, Kagami unsure if she should let go, or continue to comfort her, but…

 _...I don't want to let go…_

But before Kagami could wonder if it was going to end, Konata voice croaked, speaking up.

"Kagami," Konata said, muffled by Kagami's shirt. "Don't leave me…"

"What?" Kagami said, confused.

"I said, don't go like he did…" Konata insisted, a sense of uncharacteristic honesty permeating every word she spoke.

Kagami had always known Konata to be honest with herself, but this was different.

"It's alright, I'm not going anywhere," Kagami said, gingerly stroking Konata's hair.

 _She must be talking about Hideki..._

"He was so scared Kagami… he was so _scared_." Konata voice shook, as she tugged at the back of Kagami's shirt. "He wanted so bad not to be a burden on me."

 _I don't know why she's going there but, if she's thinking about her breakup, I better be there for her._

"We never bothered with condoms or anything… We were just having such a good time… I told him not to pull out…" Konata's breathing quickly grew ragged. "It's not that he didn't want to be a father... "

 _Oh… she's talking about… the pregnancy scare. They weren't even taking precautions…?_

Kagami was scared to think of it. A life to protect. Maybe he got cold feet. Kagami could understand that.

 _It's one thing for someone in my position to end up like that, but she'd even dropped out of college to be with him. And then there's the idea of commiting your life to someone else's… As fulfilling as it might be, it must be terrifying..._

Kagami gently massaged Konata's scalp, leaning her chin onto Konata's head.

 _I don't know how I'm so calm right now. I guess it's just because I have her here..._

Between ragged breaths, Konata started to speak again, voice hoarse with aged grief.

"I told him I was ready to take responsibility with him… if it was with for him," Konata said, face buried in the nape of Kagami's neck. "Hideki was so scared of hurting me in the long run when we found out I wasn't pregnant… He got down on the ground—put his head to the floor like something out of a movie..."

Konata pulled her head back to look Kagami in the eyes. She wore a glassed look in her eyes glasses stained with tears, with afear Kagami had felt sad she couldn't relate to herself...

" _He just didn't love me like that."_

A deafening silence grew between them, Konata's eyes looking deep into Kagami's.

 _Just… didn't love her like that?_

Kagami's mind crawled, the sentiment terrifyingly familiar.

 _She spent all this… this time with him, all this time growing closer… for nothing?_

"He knew how much he meant to me… He couldn't keep it up… He sounded so scared. I just… I told him what he wanted to hear. I… told him he was brave for telling me." Konata's fist pulled painfully back with Kagami's shirt balled within them. "I've seen him cry, but not like that. He didn't want to go either, but I knew it by then… I'd pressured him into this relationship… _I_ put him through this…"

 _P-pressure?_

"I... It was all me..." Konata whispered, tears finally coming before she put her face to Kagami's collar again.

Kagami could hardly find it in her to speak. Her eyes were already watering at the heartache she was having confessed to her. She'd never heard Konata speak like this before…

 _S-ay something._

Kagami stood still, as her best friend sobbed in her arms.

 _Say_ something _to her, Kagami. Say anything!_

"D-don't say that, it wasn't your fault," Kagami said, voice wavering as she spoke softly. "Have a little self confidence…."

Kagami felt herself being pushed away, watching Konata move away from her when in reality Kagami was nearly falling backwards.

"AND JUST _WHAT_ WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" Konata screamed.

Konata's face was red with a fearsome look that seemed like it scarcely belonged on her face,, both arms raised threateningly.

Kagami reeled back instinctively, already crying herself, as Konata's face quickly filled with shock and regret…

"Oh, oh my god. I'm so sorry Kagami." Konata's posture weakened, nearly falling where she stood.

"I'm… fucking pathetic. I looked to you for help and then pushed you away. Literally…"

Konata fell to her knees.

"I'm a scrawny otaku who doesn't know when to _shut up_. I make _fun_ of people. I can't keep my hobbies out of _every_ aspect of my life. I look like a goddamn _middle schoole_ r. I abandoned my _friends_ for a love I was too stupid to realize was one sided! Who could love _something_ like that?!"

"I CAN, GOD DAMMIT!"Kagami screamed, beside herself as a dam burst in response to Konata's self degradation.

"Don't you dare ever talk about yourself like that!" Kagami's hands balled into angry fists, eyes only seeing Konata.

"You are a beautiful, passionate person! You care for everything you love with reckless abandon! You are never afraid to say what what's on your mind! You enjoy your life to the fullest extent! Who couldn't love that?! _I_ love you for that! I've loved you as long as I've known you for that!"

Kagami's chest heaved as she spoke, words spewing with unfettered intensity.

"Show me! Show me who could say something like that about you so I can show them a thing or two about how wonderful you are... God damnit..." Kagami doubled over, eyes never leaving Konata as tears of rage licked at the corners at her eyes.

Kagami could only see Konata's face before her, now realizing that it was filled with an abject shock Kagami had failed to processes. The room bled back into Kagami's view.

Kagami quaked as she realized what she had just said, who she said it to.

 _I… should never have ordered that drink._

 **Sunday September 8th**

 **7 Hours Later**

 **9 AM**

Kagami hadn't slept the entire night, running fingers across her scalp as if to physically rack her brain with her hands. All this over what she confessed, Kagami as she walked Konata to the train station the next morning.

Konata had said she never knew, and that she wished she hadn't spent the whole night making Kagami uncomfortable with talk of her exes.

Since then Konata seemed to be awkwardly avoiding addressing the fact that Kagami had confessed to her; a pattern that continued well into the morning and their walk here. Or, at least that was what Kagami had surmised when she went deep into thought.

 _I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have let her degrading herself get the best of me._

Kagami tossed the hair out of her eyes carelessly, keeping pace with Konata beside her.

 _The landlord might even kick me out for having a guest after all those people made noise complaints._

Kagami and Konata had hardly spoken the entire morning, simply making their way to the train station on foot as Konata remained deep in thought.

 _Some part of me is glad about the silence. Silence means we don't have to talk through this thick fog of awkward between us, but that just makes me more anxious for when it inevitably comes up again._

The train station came into view, Konata quietly following beside her.

 _I wonder if we'll get to have fun days again. Maybe this changes too much._

 _Konata knows._

 _She knows I've been in love with her since high school._

Kagami resisted the urge to emote with her arms, preferring to keep it inside.

 _She can never unhear that._

The steps to the platform were right in front of them. Kagami prepared to part ways.

 _Maybe this is just the start of a new chapter in my life._

Konata looked to Kagami.

 _Maybe she was too drunk to remember the details._

Konata looked around her, walking up to the train station alone.

 _Maybe she thinks this is all some weird misunderstanding._

Konata turned around, looking back to Kagami.

 _Maybe she never wants to see me again._

Kagami felt a strange apathy wash over her, like color had faded from the world.

"Hey… Kagami?" The first time Konata had said her name since last night. "I was thinking… yesterday was a lot of fun…"

Kagami chuckled, little meaning behind it.

"So I was wondering..." Konata said, a smile growing on her face. "...If you wanted to do that again sometime, that would be fun."

Kagami could see the green in Konata's eyes.

"What are you saying. It was a disaster," Kagami said, avoiding the question as she turned to walk home.

Konata grabbed Kagami's hand, lightly pulling her back to face her.

"Don't say that, Kagami, we were laughing and having fun the majority of the time. I'd call that a good time..." Konata's voice trailed off, until she looked up at Kagami. "I'd like to do this again some time, but maybe under different circumstances."

"Now what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Kagami said, weakly smiling for the first time since last night.

"I'm not just gonna let you forget what happened back there, Kagami."

Konata took Kagami's hand with both of her small palms, stopping in front of her with a look of characteristic enthusiasm; the kind she directed at her hobbies. Set with bright green eyes, and framed against her long blue hair, behind a pair of muted red glasses.

"Kagami, I'm asking you on a date."


	9. Fancy Dinner

**December 25th, 2020**

 **Christmas Day**

 **7 PM**

 _I still can't believe she was the one that asked_ me _out, rather than the other way around..._

Kagami leaned an elbow on the table, propping her head up to watch the snowfall through the sliding patio door. Thinking back on that day more than five years ago.

 _I mean, I know it's because she felt terrible for putting me through years of anguish, but that was never her fault._

Kagami sipped out the last of her glass of wine and let out a sigh, too far away to fog up the cold glass.

 _I mean, she had literally just gotten finished telling me—_

"And then Marvin's head blew out all over the back of the car!" Konata suddenly shouted, arms waving as she recalled the movie. "Just like I read about!"

"Oh—oh sorry," Kagami said, leaning over her plate to nibble at what remained of her food.

"Spaced out for a second there."

Kagami turned, drawing her eyes across her girl's deep blue Kimono.

 _Knowing her there's a serious chance it's a reference to something, not that that's an issue. Konata's never been one for statement pieces, but when she passed over that outfit, I saw a glint in her eye—something normally reserved her otaku business._

Kagami smiled, the image burned into her memory like so much else she thought of tonight.

 _How could she not? She looks absolutely gorgeous in that thing. She still refused to put on more than some simple makeup, but something about that boyishness always charms the pants off of me._

Pulling her lingering eyes around, Kagami stopped at Konata's curves, pressed in by Konata's slender hands.

Licking her lips at the sight, Kagami abruptly remembered what this night was about, mind wrenched back to nervousness.

Eyes finding their way to Konata's face, Kagami groaned as the image was marred at the comical contrast of her amazing looks, and Konata polishing off the last of her fried chicken.

"Ungh! You just look so cute!" Kagami complained, picking up a napkin to wipe the grease from her lips, carefully avoiding smudging her lipstick. "Why didn't I just spend another half an hour and found something fancier for us to eat?!"

"Eh, it's Christmas," Konata said setting the bone down on the plate. "You gotta eat fried chicken on Christmas. And besides, it turned out great.

Konata put her hands on her hips, puffing out her chest proudly over the meal she made.

"I got to have a fancy dinner with my girlfriend. Sometimes you gotta be honest with yourself, Kagami, or you aren't gonna have a good time."

"I… I guess you're right…" Kagami sat up and righted the silk tablecloth where she laid her elbow. "Maybe I'm just worrying about nothing."

Kagami adjusted her legs under the table. Much as this made her sitting more comfortable, she couldn't feeling a numb pain in her knee as she did so.

"Dammit. Konata, I think we're getting old." Kagami said, grimacing. "This cold is killing my knees."

"Funny, dad said the same thing at the Christmas party yesterday." Konata said, half smarmy smile she tried to hide giving way as she said it.

"You are lucky you aren't in arm punching range." Kagami said, baring teeth in a playfully threatening way. "We aren't _that_ old."

Konata raised her hands with a jokey grin, surrendering as Kagami crossed her arms victoriously.

"Oh!" Konata said, pointing her finger up emphatically in that distinctly Izumi way. " So, hey, Kagami, question,"

 _I've actually seen her dad do the finger thing. Probably picked it up from him._

"What's that?" Kagami said, adjusting her posture over their mockery of a fancy dinner.

"Where did this fancy tablecloth even come from?" Konata asked, tugging at the fine cloth. "I don't remember ever seeing it before."

"Oh, uh…" Kagami tried to recall. "I want to say it was in that box of stuff Yui left behind. Said she never used it anyway so…"

Truth be told, new as this apartment was when they moved in, it was actually originally Yui and her husband's apartment.

Kagami giggled under her breath, recalling.

 _I can still hear her giant of a husband whining about leaving "even the refrigerator". We couldn't afford one that big on our budget anyway._

"Ah, that makes sense." Konata said, stretching her arms as she rose from her chair.

Kagami eyed the bottle of wine on the table, 2014 vintage.

Kagami steeled herself, unsue why she was getting up, but letting the moment carry her along.

"Hey Konata, wanna watch snow fall on the patio? Not for long, I just…" Kagami blushed, taking willpower to not avert her gaze from how achingly pretty her girlfriend looked right now. "I just thought it would be romantic is all... "

The kimono she wore hung elegantly off of her. A slight shimmer in the material shifted with each step she took. Her face was warm and delicate, something Kagami desperately wanted to kiss right now.

"You look like you want to kiss me?" Konata observed, clearly experienced with this expression. "That what this is all about?"

"Yeah… I guess I kinda do…" Kagami almost whispered the words eyes drifting all over Konata's face as she didn't know where to look.

"One kissing booth, reservation for two." Konata smuggly held her chin and grinned, ushering an arm in the direction of the sliding glass door. "Be careful out there, ma'am. It's a bit chilly.

"You-you don't need to be such a dork about it," Kagami said, turning her head and pouting, but nonetheless walking over to the door.

"And you didn't to be such a cute tsundere about it, but let's face it—"

Konata opened the door, a light breeze frigid air drawing them to focus as she grabbed Kagami's hand. The deep warmth contrasting the cold drew Kagami's attention as she turned to see that signature cheshire smile on the love of her life. A smile that made Kagami shiver not from the cold, but the rush of memories flooding her mind.

"—we both know those two qualities are why kept together all these years."


	10. Love Hotel

_**Saturday, February 8th, 2014  
4 Months of Dating**_

 _ **10 PM**_

Kagami raised an arm, fighting the weight of an enormous clothes bag to do so. Passing her hand over the door's scanner, waving the card until it made a happy little chirp.

"Ohhh, this one's all lit up green! And the bed's got its own little nook in the wall!" Konata said, running past and gently setting an eccentrically decorated bag of otaku goods on the desk. "Looks nice and cozy."

 _And like we'll be a little snug with the two of us… still sounds nice though._

Striding in and gently shutting the door behind her. Kagami set hung her bag on the door, careful not to wrinkle the clothes inside.

Kagami looked around and took in the room. This was the first time she'd ever been in this sort of place. She could almost imagine the... _things_ that often go on in here...

"Blushing, are we already, Kagamin?" Konata squeaked, benching over with hands ready to grab. "In a secluded love hotel in Ikebukuro after hours dating fun? _Whatever could you have on your miiiind?_ "

Kagami's eyes and head dart to the side. They were just here to sleep.

 _Wait, what. We weren't here for something like that. Just a quiet, secluded place to cuddle, you said. Right? Well she didn't say "just" so maybe… I mean… it's gonna happen eventually… maybe we could… a little-_

"What do you mean "this one?" Kagami said, wrenching her mind up and out of the gutter as she embarrassedly tried to rub the blush from her face. "You talk like you've been in one of these places before."

"Well…" Konata said, slowly sinking down to her side. "I sorta have—I mean, uhhh..."

 _Oh._ OH.

 _Right, duh, of course she has._

Konata meandered into the room, wearing that dumb shirt she bought at a thrift shop. The one that Kagami wished she didn't translate for her. She only bought it because it said something as ridiculous as "Big Dick is Back in Town".

Kagami sighed to herself.

She turned back just in time to see Konata droop a bit as she wandered over to the bed with her bag of otaku business.

"Did I say something wrong?" Kagami asked, wandering over to hang her bag on a hanger by the door.

"Nah, it's nothing." Konata said, scooping up a giant box from her bag. "I'm glad dad was so willing to lend you some shopping money. Usually he's so stingy outside of otaku stuff that I was surprised when he just let you have all that."

"I'm amazed at how readily he just gives you all this money if you just ask, but that does explain a lot about… both of you." Kagami said, avoiding calling either of them weird on a date. "Still, where does he get this kind of money if he's always cooped up at home?"

Konata turned her head, blankly staring at Kagami.

"Good question." Konata said cupping her chin with her hand. "I kinda forgot, so I've been meaning to ask him but I just keep putting it off—especially since it's been so long. You know how it is."

Kagami returned Konata's blank stare with one of her own.

"You mean you don't know what your own father does for a living." Kagami said, hardly enunciating in disbelief. "Are you kidding."

"Nope!" Konata said, with a natural obliviousness Kagami would call cute if it weren't so perplexing sometimes.

Kagami reached up and rubbed her eyes.

 _I'm glad you are so cute…_

Marching over to Konata's side on the bed, Kagami took a seat, bouncing a bit on the surprisingly springy surface.

"Well, to be fair," Kagami said appreciating a nice place to sit after so many hours on her feet. "It's not like he knew about us being… well, together before he just handed the money needed to restock my fraying wardrobe."

 _Us, I said... Now_ that _is a bridge we can cross when we get to it. I don't even know if he knows his daughter is into girls, much less is dating one._

Kagami's eyes narrowed, perplexed at what Konata was doing with the box in her hands.

Tilting it up at an odd angle, twisting her back awkwardly to get the green accent light they sat under into the box, Konata stared up at the figure inside.

"White or stripes… white or stripes?" Konata said, one eye closed as she peered intently at the girl sitting on a chessboard inside the box.

"Oh wow, you _actually_ are going there, aren't you?" Kagami said, flatly acknowledging her… ideals?

 _She's a sexual person, always has been. I mean, I can't say I'm completely not guilty. She's coaxed more than I'd thought I'd say about how I feel about Hanekawa from Monogatari. And I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. At least she's not as creepy about it as her dad…_

Kagami turned over, taking in Konata as she continued to search for the right lighting undeterred.

 _Oh wow. She actually might age into her dad… that's a scary thought._

"It's the principal of the matter. It shows the- YES! Stripes!-"

Konata flailed her free arm and legs about like a kid with a new toy.

"Anyway, it also shows that the people doing the sculpting and painting work are actually paying attention to all the fine details—it means they care. It's that kinda care that attracts people to this stuff in the first place. Makes it feel less commercial and more personal."

Konata gently placed the figure's box back into its back of the side of the bed, swinging her legs around and behind where Kagami sat somewhat compromisingly.

Kagami couldn't help but notice how Konata's skirt was adorably showing off the runners tan she had going on.

"I can't help but find it weird you took this long to get into No Game No Life." Kagami said, turning the box beside her toward herself. "I recommended it to you it back when the LNs came out."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to let it linger so long, but the anime did eventually come out and all and—"

"It's alright," Kagami said flopping back onto the bed with her. "I know you don't read much, it just seemed like something you might enjoy."

"Yeah…" Konata said, reclining and she raised her knees up.

A brief silence came as they both sat, trying to get comfortable for the night.

Thinking back, Kagami can't help but smile at this whole dating business. They had a wonderful time hopping trains and spending entirely too much money. Konata looked like she was about to explode when she found that figure.

 _Plus we got that great formalwear._

Kagami glanced about, noticing she was right about just how green this room is under that accent light...

 _I don't even think Konata owns something like that so I'm glad I was able to get something for her… even if I didn't technically pay for it myself…. I showed her this matching black cocktail dress to the red one I got, but she seemed… weirdly uncomfortable with it? Oh well, her being a little less feminin than the other girls was always one of her charm points, I guess?_

Kagami turned her head, looking over at her Konata, who smiled back, face a little flush.

 _Maybe… no that's stupid, I mean, we went to the public bath last week… and she let me feel that she really does have something going on upstairs that one time… but that's completely different. Maybe we could, after having so much fun together… but how would it…_

Kagami's face flushed as thoughts raced through her head of Konata. She didn't know what was different, but… something felt spontaneous right now.

Kagami turned to Konata, a wry smile on her beet red face, when Kagami saw.

Not white.

Not stripes.

Not anything.

Kagami felt as if a hand warmer had been set off in her face, unsure of what to make of it.

With a kind of calm that surprised even herself. Kagami opened her mouth and spoke.

"How long?"

"The entire date."

"You… planned this?"

"A little… Thought it might… Help me with the mood? Feel free to tell me if this is weird."

Kagami just sat and looked at Konata, mind not really comprehending what was happening, the moment not feeling real.

"It's not weird it's… Well… Yeah, it's pretty weird. But what's really… weird…"

Kagami's mind spaced, Konata seeming oddly casual as Kagami's heart began to quicken.

"You… want to…?" Kagami said, trepidation in her voice as her face grew uncomfortably blushed.

"I mean… only if you want to, Kagami."

A second like an eternity passed as Kagami processed this.

"Fuck it."

Kagami dashed her intent to think this through; mind dead focused as she rolled herself on top of a waiting Konata.

Some part in the back of her mind making a decision.

To act.

Not think.

Not letting this feeling pass.

* * *

Kagami waded, knees just out of the bathwater as she repeated the thought on her mind again.

"This doesn't feel real yet."

Suddenly lowering her legs back into the water, Kagami realized her face never did stop flushing. It didn't even feel like it was of the steaming water making her flushed. It somehow felt cooler than her own body temperature.

"We… really did a thing, didn't we, huh?" Kagami said, awkwardly turning to Konata as she washed the sweat from her body with the hotel's showerhead.

"Yup, we did.." Konata said, baring everything beside Kagami as her eyes awkwardly darted back to and away from Konata. "Pretty fun too… if a little…"

The words 'suppreamly Japanese, bobbed to the surface in Kagami's mind, though she couldn't place why.

"You can look if you want." Konata said, picking up and throwing a wash basin over herself. "It's kinda hot, if I'm being honest. And I am your girlfriend."

"Girlfriend." Kagami repeated. Words that were bringing such joy before suddenly ringing flat.

It wasn't to say didn't enjoy herself, quite the contrary. Kagami was just in a state of chemical disbelief. It was awkward but unreal, the way that Konata could do all that.

Kagami knew that a good deal if it was just the… incredible amount of hormones in her system right now, but that didn't make it feel any less strange that all this was happening. She was sure at some point it was going to drop like a stone what… Konata and her just did, but right now her brain was so hopped up she was having trouble thinking straight.

 _It's pretty obvious she wanted to try… I guess it's kinda charming in a weird… perverted way that she would go so far._

Now that Kagami thought about it, Konata did have this strange gait about her the whole day.

 _Not that I can't bring myself to ask if she was… I probably shouldn't think about it too hard. It's like Patty said to Konata that one time: thinking about it too hard will probably just make things complicated._

Hair and body soaking wet, Konata turned as she stood up, stepping carelessly into the bath, coming to a splashy rest on Kagami's lap.

Kagami briefly raised her arms in objection, before realizing it was only reflex.

This whole time in the hotel had been similar. It had all been rather awkward, if really fun.

 _Well, I did read that first times like these are generally pretty strange, but they get better… I'm just glad it was with her… With Konata._

Kagami felt Konata's spritely body weight and surprising warmth once again sink into her as Konata leaned back into Kagami's torso.

"Can—" The words caught in Kagami's throat awkwardly, prompting Konata to turn her head back, brushing her hair across Kagami's torso as it pulled upward.

"Can—can I hold you?" Kagami croaked, arms still awkwardly raised.

"Kagami, you could be fingering me right now and I probably wouldn't object." Konata said, out of nowhere comment leaving Kagami reeling for a moment.

 _Why…? I know it's kinda charming but was it really the time for that? I know she—_

Kagami raised and eyebrow as Konata, a little too suddenly, stiffly turned her head forward, as if avoiding Kagami's gaze.

"Is something wrong?" Kagami said, wondering if she overstepped somehow.

"Nah, no! It's nothing. Sorry, don't worry about it." Konata said, stretching in Kagami's lap as she spoke.

Kagami smiled, reaching round to wrap both arms around Konata locking them into place with a sure hand on either side.

It still didn't feel real, but she knew it was a wonderful date. It was obvious enough, right?

Kagami relaxed, burying her face down to Konata's scalp in front of her.

Kagami sighed happily.

 _It really does smell like vanilla._


	11. Returning to your Roots

**Saturday October 10th, 2014**

 **One Year of Dating**

 **11 AM**

It took everything for Kagami, Konata, and Yui's husband to carry that enormous peice of firnature up 5 flights of stairs when it proved too big for the elevator.

"If you had told me a decade ago I'd be moving _out_ of Tokyo and back to my home town I'd have told you you were crazy." An exhausted Kagami said, watching equally exhausted Yui tear herself from a brand new couch.

"Weird things happen in relationships." Yui said, a smirk on her face as she stretched and brushed some loose dust and dirt off her pregnant belly.

Kagami knew better than to react; she was clearly screwing with her.

 _Yui doesn't know about_ "us". Kagami thought.

"Yeah yeah, thanks for bringing your husband," Kagami said, turning her head over the back of the couch and looking at the piles of boxes in the new living room. "I'd joke about him being a giant, but on days like this that comes in handy."

"Yeah, Jumbo could hardly stretch his toes in this place, I'm sure you two will be plenty comfortable living here." Yui said pacing about as she took one last glance around her apartment as she rubbed her protruding belly.

"So, I've been meaning to ask." Kagami inquired, hair and sweat dropping lazily off the back of the couch as she leaned over it. "With all the chaos of securing the apartment and paperwork, I never got the chance to ask where that leave you two, Yui."

"We managed to score a lot up in Koga. Gonna be building a new house there in a brand new neighborhood!" Yui said proudly, rubbing her already enormous belly. "I'm sure little Takami-chan will be grateful to have lots of space to run around and her own room as she grows!"

 _New construction? Sounds expensive._

"Raise her right," Kagami said, moving to give a somewhat exhausted thumbs up sending her sliding off the back of the couch for her effort "We'll take care of your old place. Don't you worry."

"Raise your spirit, not your skirt!" Yui said triumphantly as she paced over to the door, sending Kagami scattering to put her skirt back where it belonged.

"Anyway, I'm sure Jumbo is waiting for my little break to end in the truck." Yui said, stepping down onto the mudfloor before turning back and catching Kagami's eyes. "I'm off!"

"Incidentally, Kagami. Konata likes stripes over lace." Yui said with an impish smile, an adorable trait in Konata suddenly showing its origin.

But more importantly—

"We aren't—Nobody asked you for—!" Kagami protested to as Yui stepped one last time over the threshold from what was before her home, leaving behind to Kagami and Konata.

 _Crap… maybe she does know. I'm pretty sure our folks buy that it's cheaper and more practical to live together, but… agh, she probably isn't buying it when she knows there is only one bed…_

Kagami rolled onto her back on the plush carpet of her new home.

A sudden eerie quietness grew, only punctuated by the occasional bubbling of a fishtank, the whirr of a refrigerator they graciously left behind, and Konata shuffling books into place in the next room. That is to say, only other room fully walled than the bathroom; their bedroom.

Kagami closed her eyes.

Waiting a moment she opened them again, reaching over to pinch herself just to make sure this was actually happening this time.

With a sharp pain in her cheek Kagami teared up, not from the pain, but from knowing she finally did it.

She was living with her best friend.

Her girlfriend.

Konata.

Kagami rolled around merrily, wiping the tears from her eyes, just thinking of how much more time they will get to spend together. She was giddy as a schoolgirl.

 _First we are gonna make food together! Then we are going to watch movies! Then she's waiting for me when I get home from class, and then we can spend hours together just talking!_

Kagami smiled ear to hear, spread out on the floor.

 _Oh my god, this is gonna be so great!_

Kagami rolled back onto her back, comfortably taking up the enormous amount of floorspace around her.

 _I'll probably be relying on her for cooking. Honestly she's kind of surprisingly good at it. A decade of living with a bum like her dad who subsisted on ramen before she picked up cooking will do that._ Kagami thought wryly to herself.

 _Plus there are bills to pay and things. Her dad his partly spotting the apartment and my folks are handling my school costs, but that still leaves all sorts of other living expenses._

 _I could hardly handle living alone for one!_

Kagami threw a knee up, getting comfortable as Konata occasionally dropped in to grab a box or two from the living room to put away in the bedroom.

Kagami was always one for little details like this. It was a little fun when she was doing to for someone she cared about so much.

 _I guess we should be glad she managed to get that job stocking at that bookstore in Akihabara. Not exactly a windfall but even a salary like that with her dad's help is enough to keep her from losing her mind not being able to keep up her spending habits._

 _Not to mention she literally started to drool over her store discount._

 _I just hope that "Director" guy doesn't change his mind that Hanekawa promotional cutout Konata nabbed for me. They are so supposed to return those things to the publisher, but when Konata let slip she was giving it to her girlfriend he folded like a house of cards. I can't belive that was all it took to get him to misfile it as "accidently destroyed". For acting so cool he's a wuss sometimes..._

Kagami rubbed her chin, looking at the piles of boxes of otaku goods she brought from home, from several covered in "fragile" warnings to one that read "self help".

 _Gee, I wonder what kind of_ "self help" _books like hers offer._ Kagami thought dryly, thinking of how little Konata reads when she had as much manga and doujinshi as Kagami had books.

 _Still, it's gonna be a step down for her since she's got so many living expenses her dad was covering. I hope she'll be alright for a few years until I get the credentials needed to get some consulting work._

Kagami sighed. This seemed like such a big step, spending the last couple months of organizing the transfer of ownership of Yui's old apartment.

 _But it's really only the beginning, isn't it?_

Kagami smiled at Konata as she wandered back into the room, hefting another box she likely couldn't have carried into the bedroom.

"Need any help with that?" Kagami offered.

"Not unless you want to help me sort porn by series, fetish, circle, pairing, and source production company." Konata said, turning around with the sagging 'self help' box, in her arms.

"And besides, I know that look, Kagami, You were running money numbers, weren't you?" Konata observed, carefully putting one foot in front of the other as she made her way past Gyupi's tank into the bedroom.

"Something like that…" Kagami said, waving her off as she turned her head up to the ceiling. ",but yeah, you are probably more suited for that job. Have fun."

 _God, she really is a horndog sometimes isn't she? She's tried to explain that stuff to me before, but I just don't really get it. Oh well, it's harmless hobby long as she doesn't bankrupt us._

Circling around with another overstuffed box, hardly holding together as the bottom bowed. Hefting it up onto her chest, Konat stopped to appreciate the sheer size of this living room, even if it did come at the cost of it being a single bedroom.

"I can still hardly believe we got this place at the rate we did." Kagami said, knowing she'd never have been able to afford this while at school, nor on Konata's salary.

"Yeah, we really lucked out." Konata said judging a box with the English letters BD on it. "Thanks, Yui!"

Kagami looked up quizzically, still on her back on the carpet and acutely aware of Konata's skirt.

 _Stripes… Maybe Yui was right..._

"She left five minitues ago while you were packing." Kagami said apologetically. "Sorry, I should have said something."

"Aww," Konata whined, pushing the box towards the shelf along the living room wall and grabbing one marked clothes."I wanted to give her a big 'ol hug after doing all this for us!"

"Yeah, you just want an excuse to feel her baby belly again." Kagami said, giving Konata a smarmy grin.

"Ooo, you got me there, Kagami!" Konata said, circling around with another box.

Seemingly gauging how much she needed to raise her voice to be heard from the living room, Konata spoke up.

"Oh, by the way. I saw the LN adaptation of the last book of that book series you like at work the other day. Bluegrass." Konata said, audibly shuffling boxes around. "It looks to be selling pretty well. Even if Umahone is more of a manga focused bookstore."

"It still amazes me how that adaptation took such a foothold in the otaku community." Kagami said, rolling onto her stomach and holding her head up in her arms in thought. "Other than the moe artwork they made for that adaptation, it really strikes me as pretty atypical for otaku standards."

"Yeah," Konata said, rounding the corner again. "I mean,the original novel version was popular enough to do those 'signed by the author' mail in contests. You lucked out winning that, Kagami."

"Mhm, only thing is they, for some reason, signed my copy of the novel version of the last book on a random page. It was right above when the protagonist was putting his daughter down—" Kagami started, only for Konata to raise both arms in protest.

"No stop, don't spoil the ending for me!" Konata said out of nowhere.

Kagami gave Konata a look.

"You hardly read." Kagami said flatly. "It's not like you'll ever get around to it."

"Heh… you're probably right. Most I read is the occasional eroge. And Clanand." Konata said, lifting up a second box emblazoned with "self help."

"You are lucky you are so cute." Kagami said, smiling up at her girlfriend.

"Imma gonna take that as a compliment, cutie tsundere." Konata said, rounding the corner back into the bedroom once more.

Kagami heard the sound of tearing tape, and then suddenly countless small thuds and flaps. In the next room, like someone dropped a stack of papers. And then a thud.

"Oh no!" Konata cried, feet scrambling in the next room.

"What's wrong?!" Kagami yelped, pulling herself to her feet and carefully stepping past Gyupi's tank and into the bedroom, knowing from experience not to shake the tank.

"Crap, think I didn't set the tape right. It tore under the weight on the bottom or something!" Konata said, coming into view a half empty box piles of obscene material at her feet that would have been Kagami's first concern once upon a time.

Now the main concern was Konata, half in tears, trying to carefully avoid creasing anything in her collection she dropped.

"Oh god, that's bad. I Kagami said, getting on her knees before even Konata did to help her with her predicament. "I know this stuff means a lot to you. Here, I'll be super careful and help you stack it all up."

"God, Kagami, what did I ever do without you…?" Konata said, an air of geniune heartfeltness contrasting comically with the scene of countless books filled with sex of all kinds littered the floor.

"I'm just glad to be here with you." Kagami said, slowly forming a pill of mostly undamaged books at her side. "Gotta be there for my girlfriend after all."

"Yeah, guess you are right." Konata said, obviously implying something. "Gonna be fun having you in arms reach from now on."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Let's focus on the books for now, okay?" Kagami said, moving onto a second pile, setting aside one with several pages bent over themselves.

"...Okay." Konata said, almost sheepishly.

 _She's never been one for work, plus she really cares about the state of this stuff, I think the best I can do for her is just help her take inventory._

Then, on the bottom of the pile she was looking at, she found one that was not so lucky.

Some kind of BL romance story, folded in half at an odd angle under the rest.

Kagami couldn't help but notice the man on the cover looked a bit like Konata's ex boyfriend, but held her tongue.

 _That was always a sore subject for Konata._

Konata took noticed, taking it from Kagami gently and setting it aside.

"You gonna be okay?" Kagami said putting her arms out to for a hug, which Konata quickly filled, still on her knees.

"Kagami, am I strange to you? Is… this cheating? I…" Konata trailed off, hug loose she limply held onto Kagami.

Kagami blinked.

"What? No, there is nothing wrong with any of this." Kagami said, drawing on some of the questions she asked on that forum before she first intended to confess. She just wanted to better understand the mindset of people into this sort of thing. "It's just porn, and you don't really engage in it in an unhealthy way."

"It's just… the way you looked at that one. I was kind of scary." Konata whispered, grip slowly tightening around Kagami. "Like you saw something in him…"

"No no, it's nothing." Kagami said, trying to reassure her. "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

 _She is probably aware of what that man looked like, and it means something to her… I can sort of understand that. She's never quite gotten over that breakup…_

Kagami reached in and pulled Konata into a tighter embrace. Konata doesn't know it, but she sometimes cries in her sleep, saying his name. Obviously a very sore spot.

"You want to talk about it?" Kagami said, nuzzling the side of her head against Konata's.

Konata went silent, not seeming to ponder the question as much as Kagami.

With a tight grip and a firm nod, Konata seemed to have decided on something.

"Kagami. Can I…" Konata's voice suddenly trailed off, as if she lost confidence in what she was about to say.

"What? Is something wrong?" Kagami asked.

Konata suddenly broke off the hug, instead electing to stand as she ushered Kagami to her feet as well.

"Are you okay Konata?" Kagami said, watching a deep pensiveness suddenly morph some attempt at resolution.

"Kagami… can you... tie up your hair? In twintails?" Konata said, resolution wavering as she struggled to maintain eyeconnect.

"What? I.. I mean sure, if you'd like, I'll need some-" before Kagami could finish her sentence, Konata produced a pair of ribbon ties.

"Huh, I guess you kinda wanted this if you already had mine." Kagami said, recalling Konata's fascination with the Kagami's old hairdo. "Sure, if it will cheer you up, I'll do it."

Kagami took them, carefully running a finger down the back of her head, and through her hair, drawing it all between her thumb and forefinger in one hand as she felt a wave of nostalgia rush over her.

Drawing the tail closed with one hand, she quickly tied her hair, the motion coming back to after years of languishing in her muscle memory. And she repeated it again, donning a look that seemed a little childish on her today.

But looking at the slow blush forming on Konata, it seemed to strike a nerve.

"Konata, are you—"

But before she could finish the, Konata flung herself in Kagami's direction, leg wrapped halfway around Kagami's body as she grabbed tight, as if she were trying to mount her while standing.

"It's _Kagamin_!" Konata said, using a nickname she'd not used since high school.

"Holy!? Konata, what's gotten into you?! I mean it's okay but—"

"Kagamin, please, just let me have this," Konata said, not waiting as she pushed her mouth onto Kagami's still relenting lips.

 _I know she has a big sexual appetite but… this is a little…_

Kagami shrugged, reaching to grab Konata from below as she liked, and carefully step over the pile with them in her arms, Intent on taking her to their still sheetless bed.

Kagami finally let Konata's tongue in, starting to feel the motion herself.

 _Well… if she wants it so bad, I guess I should oblige. And besides she's so cute when she's riled up like this._

 _It's just…_

Kagami's thought was interrupted as Konata's hand wandered up to her chest, knowing just where to touch.

 _Screw it, I can worry later. I just hope this isn't anything major._

And with that thought, Kagami let herself fall onto Konata, sandwiching her to the bed, and slowly let herself forget the idea.

 _If she wants to talk, she'll bring it up…_ Kagami thought, letting her mind melt away into the warmth wrapped around her.


	12. Influenza

**Wednesday, May 5th, 2015**

 **One and a Half Years of Dating**

 **3PM**

Kagami draped their heavy comforter over Konata who had changed into Kagami's favorite green pajamas, three sizes too large, after sweating through all of her own.

"Get some sleep. You need it."

Kagami knelt at Konata's side, interleaving her fingers with Konata's as she weakly reciprocated.

Konata murmured, eyes half hidden behind a thick cool washcloth Kagami had placed down. Adjusting her head against her pillow, Konata settled, finally finding sleep again.

It started with a fever. Then she started to complain about feeling weak, until she could hardly get out of bed.

Then she couldn't at all.

 _I told you it was a bad idea to stay out in the rain like that… even if it was really romantic the way you kissed me all of a sudden…_

The doctor said it was influenza, and she had the misfortune of getting more sick before she noticed. Even needing assistance to go to the bathroom. Not a great combination.

The doctor had recommended Konata constant bedrest, prescribed some medicine, and insisted that someone monitor her for any signs of worsening symptoms. It will probably pass, they said, but if it gets worse she should be taken to a hospital.

That was a week ago, and even though Konata had shown signs of improvement, it was still scary hearing her doctor talk like that. Kagami was told not to worry too much, but she couldn't help it.

 _I've got the attendance and grades to miss a few classes, but my professor always looked at me like a model student. I really hope he understands._

Kagami adjusted her kneeling, being careful not to let the carpet dig in, finally letting go of Konata's hand. The steady rise and fall of her chest thankfully showing she needn't worry about how worryingly little resistance Konata gave to letting go of Kagami's hand.

 _I know responsibly I should have just let her dad take care of her, but this is personal. I don't think I could stay composed enough to study knowing she's at home and sick as a dog._

On day three, Kagami had to go out to get food for them both, knowing eating would do her good. Having little remaining with her refrigerator she enlisted Konata's father to watch her for a couple of hours. It only ended up being about an hour as she was nearly worrying herself sick in the process.

 _Soon as I opened the front door I heard him sobbing. He sounded really distraught, meanwhile Konata was sleeping right through it, still at her worst._

Kagami sighed, standing and beginning standing to pace around the room.

 _God, much as he's a weirdo, much as he spoiled you, he really cares about you. He's a strange one at heart, but he's a good father._

"You are lucky to have him, Konata." Kagami whispered, careful not to wake her.

 _It took nearly an hour, a careful trip to the bathroom, a change of clothes, and a cold compress to get you comfortable again. Gotta make sure you get as much rest as you can._

Kagami walked across the room, getting ready to pull Konata's desk chair out to give herself a place to sit when she stopped to consider her desk. Looking at Konata's computer on, Kagami reached down, thoughtfully, Kagami put a hand down on the tower.

 _Hmm… maybe. Yeah, you know what you need? Maybe when you are better I should_ spoilyou _a little._ Kagami thought to herself, a smile curling across her face.

 _You've probably got some stuff on here that could give me some_ ideas.

Kagami pulled up the chair and sat down, depressing the power button as Konata's PC whirred to life; a hum thankfully not loud enough to bother her sleeping beauty.

 _I know your tricks. You keep all the juicy stuff on your D: drive, don'cha?_

Kagami grinned at herself, pulling up the file directory and clicking onto her secondary storage drive.

Leafing through the various files, from old computer files, what looked like a file of old pictures, until finally Kagami found a file unambigously labled "pornograghy" in English.

 _Heh, not very hidden when my English is this good._

Patting herself on the back a little, Kagami clicked in, scrolling through various mostly unorganized thumbnails and few folders.

 _...Huh?_

Kagami quickly noticed a pattern in the various files. They seemed to be predominantly focused on…. men, and male focus things. Sure there were a lot of anime girls but, just as many boys, and photos of men.

 _I've seen you use some of this stuff before… but I didn't know there was this much of it…_

Kagami scrolled, page after page, file after file. Perplexed at the density of it all, but she did always seem to like these sorts of things, until she saw something at the very bottom of the directory.

It was a half transparent file labeled "zzzzzzzz".

 _A hidden file? She must have left visibility on._

 _Aimlessly clicking on it like any other file,_ Kagami was met with it containing a single file labeled 'a'. And inside of it, another file labeled "a".

 _What is this, a nesting doll or something?_ Kagami thought incredulously to herself.

Clicking through several times, the 'a's suddenly stopped. Inside was a file labeled "old".

Curiously, Kagami clicked.

Inside was countless pictures: previews showing Konata and her ex boyfriend Hideki on various occasions. Dates, dinners, conventions, the works.

 _I guess she couldn't bare to just get rid of it all._ Kagami thought, knowing just how much the man meant to her.

She continued scrolling, clicking pictures and folders at random until a particular folder caught her eye. It was labeled one word but it was enough to leave her frozen, staring.

 _Ero._

Kagami stared at it for a moment. The implications were obvious. In a folder of her old pictures with Hideki.

Not knowing if she was being suspicious, morbidly curious, or having read too many study cases involving looking through morbid evidence… Kagami opened it.

Inside was exactly what she had expected: photos and videos of them together. Parsing through them, the invasion of privacy not quite hitting her, after too many nights sorting through digital evidence in studies, Kagami did something almost second nature to her at this point.

She right clicked the topmost video file and navigated into properties.

Ignoring the thumbnail preview of Konata's old room, Kagami looked through the page of information displayed, brows furrowing, as she noted the date was not long after Hideki and Konata got together.

Created: Saturday, September 4th, 2010, 16:32

Modified: Saturday, September 4th, 2010, 19:02

Kagami blinked, reading the last line. The last time she viewed this particular video.

 _Accessed: Wednesday, August 18h, 2015, 13:07_

 _That's… hardly even a few weeks ago; a few days before she got sick. During her day off and while I was in class. I guess you really like your old photos, huh?_

Kagami continued to click, drilled instinct of looking through criminal files letting her glide over information taking over as she did what came naturally. She looked like the lawyerl she aspired to be, even if pure consultation seemed more and more realistic as time passed.

Clicking the file, Kagami was greeted by muffled background noise, steps and shuffling feet off camera, all inside Konata's old room.

Konata walked into the frame, sitting on her bed.

And… as Kagami suspected, to the sight of a giggling and smiling Konata, Hideki entered the frame.

Kagami skipped forward.

Konata was naked on the bed, kissing a shirtless Hideki.

Again.

Konata bounced, moaning loudly.

Again.

Konata turned Hideki toward the camera, teasing the embarrassed man.

Again, to the end of the video

Konata stepping over to and around the camera, the video ending a moment later.

Kagami cupped her chin, trying to parse the implications of this.

Konata spent time looking at old videos of Hideki and Konata… together.

 _I guess probably just gets her going. I mean, she never really quite got over him, but why all the hidden file stuff?_ Kagami thought, turning around as she connected the dots, remembering how Konata's camera tripod lay next to the be—

On the bed, Konata's eyes were wide and full of terror, hands clasped over her mouth to muffle what sound she may make as she lay her side on the bed.

 _The sound-!_

Kagami, so absorbed in her little investigation, had completely forgotten to mute the computer.

"Konata, I'm sorry I—"

" _I'm so sorry!_!" Koanta yelled, half dazed and hoarse as streamed down her face..

"I'm—you're what?" Kagami said, dumbfounded as she rotated Konata's chair, a fear started to grow in her chest. The pin finally dropping that this all was a massive invasion of privacy.

"Oh, Konata, I'm sorry, I was just trying to—"

But Konata was clearly not listening, rolling over to wail as strongly as her weakened body would let her.

Kagami stood up, immediately running over and dropping to her knees behind Konata, attempting to take her hand, only for Konata to swing it away in apparent rejection.

"No!" Konata said, pulling her arm over to her side.

Kagami's face strained, sympathetically upset as her brain went into overdrive trying to process this reaction.

 _Is she…?_

"Konata, if you still have feelings for him, that's okay, we can talk about it if you'd like." Kagami said, pushing out something to try and not only treat her girlfriend's woes but also her own growing sympathetic grief. She couldn't watch her cry like this.

"It's not that, I mean—" Konata gasped, breath already weakened it now seemed completely lost to her as she struggled to speak. "—thats!"

"Konata, I need you to aren't well. Whatever is wrong we can talk about it. I'll always be here for you." Kagami insisted, trying to maintain an air of calm. Getting mad or upset would only make everyone feel worse, she knew that. "You hear me? Now please, _breathe."_

Konata sucked in a sharp breath, then a slower one, and another, until she closed her eyes, finding a slow, steady, ragged rhythm.

"Okay, now what is it, Konata?" Kagami said, knowing it had something to do with what she saw, but didn't appear to be the immediate privacy issue.

Konata took in a breath, eyes crusty and wet as she let that breath out, before letting another breath in.

"Do you mean it?" Konata asked.

"Mean what?"

"Anything. That we can talk through anything." Konata said, a scared, sad intonation in her voice as it shook.

" _Anything."_

Konata eyes darted to the side, before slowly panning back to Kagami…

"Alright." Konata softly spoke, a wavering resolution clear in her change in speech.

Kagami braced herself, not sure what this was about, but it was clearly eating at Konata. She couldn't stand not to know, it would only eat at her.

"Kagami…" Konata started, before slowly turning her head up, as if she was unable to look into Kagami's eyes.

"I…" Konata bit her lip, the words literally painful. "Kagami…"

"I don't really…" Konata started, unsure how to put her own words as she tried to speak.

"I don't particularly like girls… like that." Konata spat out.

Kagami's eyes widened, cheeks drooping.

"I… don't understand."

"I'm saying I don't really find girls terribly attractive!" Konata said, raising her voice in a scared frustrated tone. "I'm just scared… I'm… I'm doing the same thing that Hideki did, aren't I?"

"As Hideki—what does that—?!" Kagami cut herself off.

 _Okay, stay calm, getting flustered and upset isn't going to find out what's going on here, find the loose thread and pull. Just… don't think of it as cross examining your girlfriend._

"Konata, I need you to breathe, and keep calm." Kagami injected, trying to wrench the conversation into a useful path. "What did he do that would make you think you are acting like him?"

Konata looked off and out the window into the rain outside, like she was contemplating a deep truth of herself, if she should even mention it.

"Kagami… for his sake, please… never tell anyone this. And… I'm sorry if this disappoints you…" Konata said, weak, sick face limply looking over at Kagami as if she'd given up. "I should have said this a long time ago…"

"I didn't find out until after we'd already broken up, I'm not even sure he knew until after that for sure… but…" Konata stopped, as if contemplating how she can simply stop talking, before looking over at Kagami, a sense of trust in her face as she words came out.

"I don't think Hideki is into girls… like you are." Konata said, eyes drooping, forlorn.

Kagami could feel the puzzle starting to come together, but… did she mean?

"He's… into men?" Kagami sheepishly asked. Despite being interested in women herself, she never had much experience talking with others about this. She knew it was a tender topic and tried to tread lightly, especially if it could make Konata act like this.

"It's… I think it's more complicated than that…" Konata took a breath, eyes drifting up as if untombing thoughts she'd rather forget. "He… really did care for me, he just couldn't… love a woman like that. He… thought it was wrong… He couldn't… And he didn't tell me… until it was tearing him up inside. He didn't tell me until a few months after we broke up."

"Konata, is… this is…" Kagami could understand how this could affect her, and put the pieces together. "You think you are doing the same thing he did. Feeling like you are lying to someone you care for because of your preference. Oh god, why didn't you tell me if it was hurting you this much, Konata? I would have listened!"

Kagami forcibly grabbed Konata's hand, and after a brief protest, held it tight.

"I don't care if you prefer guys; only if you are happy! We can work through something like that!" Kagami said, trying to address and confront Konata's reasoning.

 _If she thinks guys are attractive, but she's been with me this long… surely it's not a deal breaker for her… right?_

Konata eyes drifted off again, still having more to say.

"I… never told you why me and Patty broke up. Or, at least I was never forthright about it."

Konata's face contorted, painful thoughts rising to the surface as Kagami could only try to keep up.

"She taught me a lot of things… like how romantic and sexual feelings aren't necessarily the same. We went out for a few months, but things weren't really working in the sheets. We were better as friends..."

Konata's small hand gripped tightly onto Kagami's, pained to even be speaking as her voice groaned in sickness.

"After the thrill of new things wore off, I started to realize I didn't really like her that way."

Konata turned her head over to the wall, hand still gripping Kagami's tight.

"She understood. Patty was okay with that. She helped me when I was at my worst. She got me through a tough time, and I'd never take back the time we spent together."

"But then, Kagami… you said you liked me, it was so clearly bothering you. I thought… why not give you a chance. Who knows, maybe it might be different."

Kagami gripped Konata's hand painfully tight, almost ready to ask if she was saying it wasn't.

"And it… it _was_ different. It really _was_. I was having the time of my life. With _you_! I realized you weren't replacing anyone—I realized I was taken by you," Konata's head flipped over, eyes closed as she weakly spoke again.

"But—-!"

"…But I'm using you! Your future's so much better than mine. I threw it away! Of course that must be the case! I keep trying to compensate for the fact that I don't find you that attractive wherever I can! It's a lie!"

"It's not a lie!" Kagami said, suppressing an old instinct to hit Konata with a pillow.

"You aren't using me! I've been working so hard not just for my passions, but to provide for you! You've been doing all you can to help yourself be happy, Now are you telling me the happiness you've had with me was a lie?! That you want to take back all the time we spent together?!"

"No I'd never, take that away, I love you, Kagami! But it's wrong that I couldn't tell you," Konata yelled, which was all it took . "I don't deserve this!"

Kagami let go of Konata's hand, throwing an arm over her and pulling her into a tight embrace.

"You deserve it because I gave it to you! Just like you have given me all this time together!"

Kagami pulled Konata in tight

"There is nothing wrong with any of this, but fundamentally it all comes back to one thing." Kagami said, an inch for Konata's face as she finally found her green eyes. "I don't care if it's sudden to say right now I have to ask it, god dammit.

"I'd have helped you if you'd just told me, but—but!"

Kagami stared right into Konata's eyes, words she struggled to say erupting from her chest.

"Do you want to work through this or not, _you idio_ t?!"

Konata stared, eyes wide full of scared curiosity, a grin weakly cracking.

Konata began to laugh, coughing in Kagami's face a little.

"What's so funny?!" Kagami said, so riled up by Konata in such pain that she took offense to it.

"It's… it's just, you were just acting so tsundere. _It's adorable_. You haven't called me an _idiot_ in a long time. Kagami… maybe… maybe I should try… just one thing."

"Anything!"

Can you… act a bit more tsundere from time to time, okay?" Konata said, the strongest smile in more than a week forming on her face

Kagami's face dropped, too dumbfounded to notice the spittle on her face, before a weak smile cracked across face in return to Konata's.

"What…. God, how did I ever fall in love with such a dork." Kagami whispered.

Konata reached up, gently pulling Kagami into a kiss.

"How did I ever find such an honest to god tsundere?"


	13. A Very Lucky Christmas

**December, 24th, 2020, Yesterday**

 **Christmas Eve**

 **2pm**

" _Kampai!_ "

Cheers and the clinking of glasses and cans rang around the room. As the cheering finally settled, everyone scurried to their own personal Christmas party celebrations. All of them found their own little hiding places in a house that was not built for half a dozen people, much less nearly two dozen.

It was a reunion in the truest sense of the term. Excited greetings and stories of years past echoed in all directions as if everyone were frantically attempt to recoup the past decade. Kagami wandered around Konata's dad's home, noticeably out of date, but the crowd felt more like something out of high school.

 _It was incredible Patty and Soujirou managed to organize all this. They really play off each other well, don't they?_

Nervously patting at her pocket, knowing what was inside, Kagami sighed and put her beer back in the fridge, still wet with condensation.

 _Yeah, I think I'll just pass on drinking. Gonna be a lot of catching up I want to remember._

Kagami wandered out of the kitchen, spotting Misao setting up an ancient looking game console to the television. Snuggling up to her and watching in awe was her 4 year old daughter Mipha, with her husband Kyuu standing beside her with Ayano, fumbling with a set of cables.

 _I'm glad those three are doing well, she's even stayed in contact with Ayano this whole time. Kinda makes me jealous they stayed so close this whole time._

Across from them Tsukasa took up a seat on a dilapidated couch with her longtime boyfriend Riichi, talking the day away something or another as he held her deep in his arms.

 _Tsukasa had been saying how they'd been talking about getting married soon, but it's still all up in the air. I'm sure this will work out better than Tsukasa's first boyfriend if it lasted this long._

Kagami sighed, wishing them the best of luck.

Amazingly Miyuki somehow managed to fly out from America with the boy she met in American university. Standing in the side entrance to the room Miyuki gabbed in textbook-correct English.

 _I'll have to introduce myself later—in English of course. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of that._

Konata and Hiyori sat, flailing arms as they talked enthusiastically about some manga Hiyori was doing. Konata was always a big fan of Hiyori's work, even before she started doing it professionally.

 _Apparently Hiyori's been so busy with her duties as a mangaka that she'd been neglecting hanging out with her otaku friends. I hope she's doing okay._

Speaking of otaku, Kagami peered out the sliding glass door to see several of Patty and Hiyori's old friends from the animation research club in high school were sitting out on the back porch, bundled up as they watched the gentle snowfall. One with long green twintails carefully leaned on an old fence that looked like it was going to give under even her spritely weight.

 _I should meet and greet with them. They all enrolled the year after we graduated. Didn't exactly get many chances to speak much with them._

Kagami had lost track of Yutaka and Minami, but she was sure they were somewhere having a good time.

 _I_ _t's been obvious for a long time that they've been dating from all the gossip Miyuki's mom has said. They still think it's a secret though. That's adorable. Don't they know parents figure that stuff out?_

Yui's giant of a husband were out front, avoiding the constant shouts of how huge he was, having brought along a much shorter friend who brought his even shorter teenage daughter.

 _I need to introduce myself. The guy with the messy hair apparently works as a translator, but I don't know what language._

Outside, with a grin like someone a quarter her age, a high schooler in green quadtails tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

 _Man, everyone seems to have kids these days. I guess we are getting older._

Konata's dad, Miyuki's mom, and Kuroi Sensei were really hitting it off, having three of the coveted spots at the kotatsu as they chatted away, having a merry old time.

 _Kuroi sensei has apparently been in a couple failed relationships, but I'm sure she'll find love soon if she keeps trying!_

Kagami sighed contently as she continued to wander down memory lane.

 _It's hard to believe most of us are in our thirties. Highschool only feels like it was a few years ago..._

Kagami continued to wander., trying to find someone who wasn't preoccupied to talk to, until she rounded into the hallway. She found finding Konata unexpectedly out of her seat, talking to—

"H-hey, Hiiragi-san." Hideki said, waving his free hand as he gave Kagami a soft, cautious smile, awkwardly brushing his short hair off to the side.

Kagami grabbed herself by the arm, making an equally awkward approach.

Staring at each other for a moment, Kagami saw his eyes silently communicate some regret, before trying to find something else to look at. Kagami stared, giving a similar look.

Just as the awkwardness was reaching critical, Konata pushed her way between them, careful not to knock over their drinks.

"Come on, you two! It's a _Christmas_ party, you gotta be merrier than this!" Konata insisted, an angel's call breaking the ice.

Konata smiled as she looked up at the two, no hard feelings apparent between her and her ex as they smiled.

"She's right." Kagami said resolutely, bowing respecibly at him. "It's nice to finally see you again, Hideki."

With a moment of hesitation, the man, quite a bit taller, returned her bow. Kagami couldn't help but note how deep it was as he did his best to maintain eye contact.

"Yeah, it's nice to so the person who could make Konata happy." Hideki said, before immediately backpedaling like a dork. "Wait, what I mean to say is it's nice to meet up with you, and that I'm glad you two are going so well together. When I said it like that it makes it sound like I—"

"Hideki-san,a little lawyerly advice. When you say something you didn't mean, stop speaking or turn to someone else to help you." Kagami said, putting on a winning smile, or at least an attempt at one, as she spoke. "Talking while panicked is only gonna make things worse."

The man slumped his shoulders defeated as he took her advice, giving an a surprisingly genuine smile.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he said, rubbing the back of his head as he spoke.

"Anyway, I hope you two… uh, you two live… I hope you two are happy to—" Hideki stuttered, apparently struggling to find the words he needed.

"He's trying to say thanks," Konata interjected, saving the helpless man, as he nodded in happless agreement. "For taking care of me and continuing to do so, Kagami."

"Anyway, Kagami," Konata started, leaning against the wall, "do you mind if him and I talk alone for a little bit? We wanted to talk about some kinda awkward personal stuff. Also I really want to hear about his the _cute_ guy he met a winter Comiket."

 _Heh._ Kagami thought, reading between the lines as he awkwardly shied away at the word cute.

"Nah, that's fine, you two catch up. Maybe we can talk a bit more later in the night, Hideki?"

Kagami nodded her head with a smile at the man, as he answered in kind, giving that same smile as Konata.

The former pair had been in contact by email since 2013 or so, but they'd not actually met up more than a couple of times since then, both with and without Kagami present.

Kagami was greatful of him for trying his hardest to at least still be a good friend, even if things never worked out between them.

 _I'm kinda grateful for him trying to still be a good friend, even though things didn't work out between them. I'm not sure if I'll ever be fully comfortable around him, but it's nice to at least touch base. Hopefully I'll be able to get his side of the story some day._

Kagami wasn't sure if she'd ever be fully comfortable around him, but it was nice to at least touch base, and she hoped to get his side of the story if she got the chance.

Strolling around a stumbling Kuroi sensei, drunk off her ass, Kagami found herself in the kitchen yet again. Kagami found Miyuki and the boy she brought had wandered off, leaving a tall, thin Santa Claus with bright orange hair rifling through the fridge.

"Oh right, you live here, don't you?" Kagami said, her spoken English functional as she tried to converse.

"Yup." Patty, essentially Kagami's only conversational partner, returned in Chicago accented English before putting a can of dry beer, still wet with condensation to her lips.

 _Her English is a lot less, well, bizzare sounding than her Japanese. You'd think with more than a decade to perfect and all that time in college she'd have worked out something by now._

Kagami put a hand to her chin and considered it.

 _Honestly, she's probably doing on purpose._ Kagami thought to herself, giggling instead of trying to end Patty's fun as a foreigner.

"Soujirou-ojichan is having some serious empty nest syndrome lately, I think if I ever went back home to the US he'd just be too lonely."

 _Uncle… right, she's basically his niece, living here so damn long, but more importantly._

"You just want to stay because Akihabara is less than an hour away." Kagami joked, taking a sip of the drink in her off hand she forgot she was holding.

"Don't forget about Otome Road, and Shinjuku, and—"

"Please, you are starting to sound like Konata." Kagami said, coaxing a laugh out of both of them.

Sighing happily, Patty dorkily flipped up her beard again, taking another drink with a hearty exhale.

"Soooo, speaking of Konata, how is she doing, Kagami-chan? It's been a while since she talked with Hideki-kun in person." Patty popped the top on her beer, apparently too focused on her question to do a customary chug and overly dramatic exhale as she carefully tipped the Santa beard on her face up and out of the way of her can.

 _Hmm, how were they speaking to each other?_

Kagami considered it for a moment.

"I'd say they are doing well," Kagami weighed her words, concern evident concern on Patty's face melting off as she spoke."Or at least I don't think she's gonna have any issues."

"Well, that's a relief. Sometimes... I can still feel her crying on my shoulder at night. It's not a nice feeling." Patty took another swig of her drink, almost trying to forget. "I'm just glad she eventually found someone she's happy living with. Sometimes I regret telling her not to think too hard about things..."

"Yeah, I'm glad too," Kagami spoke, remembering the time she's spent doing back and forth with Patty after Konata's romantic issues came to light.

Kagami had learned a lot about the both of them, and as a result Patty and Kagami had become rather familiar, occasionally talking privately in English like this over the phone. Patty knew a lot more about girls than her pedigree in boys love comics would suggest, lending some valuable advice to their relationship and on Konata herself, given they were practically sisters the amount of time they spent together.

"Oh by the way, Kagami-chan." Patty said, a quizzical look on the visible half of her face, "While I remember, do you know if Konata has my mega milk shirt? I've been wondering what happened to that, and I realized the last time I had it was just before Konata moved out."

Kagami looked gave her a look, before remembering that oversized nightshirt of Konata's.

"Wait, that thing is yours?"

Patty sighed happily, smile across her face.

"Oh good, she does have it. I'm fine with her having it. She'd run around in it like a dress in private, it was really cute."

"Yeah, Konata does the same thing to me. She sleeps in it a lot too."

 _It really is a sight..._

"Hah! Well, I'm glad it found a good home!"

The pair broke out into a laugh, taking back their drinks as they smiled happily.

"Oh hey, Soujirou-ojiichan, need something out of the fridge?" Patty said, switching to her bizarrely accented Japanese as Soujirou walked up behind Kagami.

"Ah? No, actually I wanted to ask Kagami a question. Mind if I steal her for a few?" Soujirou said, waving Kagami into the living room. "Could you two come in here a second."

Passing the threshold back to the living room, Kagami noticed on her third pass the alarming looking, more than a centimeter wide crack along the doorway, from floor to ceiling, running all the way to the lamp in the ceiling above the kotatsu.

 _Holy shit, that looks bad, I can see the insulation._

"Kagami, how old are you?" Soujirou said, draping a blanket over Miyuki's mother as she slept drunkenly beneath her spot at the kotatsu.. "Sorry, weird question, we were just talking about old things.."

"Yeah, Takumi-chan turns six in February." Yui said, dressed in a thick wool sweater across from soujirou. "I could have sworn the terrible twos were just last year, and somehow she's already getting ready to go to grade school. Time just keeps flying by when you get older, huh?"

Kagami took a place between them, across from a snoring, before thinking it rude to take Patty's seat. Before she could object, the problem solved itself in a… most unexpected way.

"Make room, oji-chan." Patty unceremoniously said, sliding her way up right next to Soujirou, veritably cuddling like it was the most normal thing in the world.

 _Is she… are they? I mean… they are both adults… Nononono, that's right, she's basically his daughter and she just acts like it, that's all. She even called him her uncle._

 _Kagami gulped as Patty casually popped her head down on Soujirou's shoulder._

 _I… hope._

"So anyways, right question, how old am I." Kagami said, trying to dismiss the thought before it took any more roots. "I turned thirty one back in July."

"Thirty one, huh? Same as Konata." Soujirous said, head drifting back as if trying to find something in the back of his head. "Same as the house too…"

With that, the four sat there, trying to ignore the incessant snoring Yukari provided the conversation in the fourth side of the kotatsu. Conversations drifted through the night, new people dropping in and out as Soujirou wove a tale of shambling house around them.

Apparently him and Konata's mother, Kanata built it to raise "little" Konata in, Soujirou embellishing just how tiny she's always been.

It's been more practical for quite some time to just buy a lot, demolish the house, and start from scratch. Kagami had read how that seemed downright backwards in other countries where a suburban development was meant to last as long as possible and had a renovation culture to match, but here in Japan a home was frequently a depreciating investment. Home improvement outside of contract work was apparently really common in America. Complete with giant stores for it.

This of course made it all the more bewildering that Soujirou lived here till a nasty storm threatened to blow out windows and the ceiling was visibly bowing slightly above the kitchen.

 _I guess the place is meaningful to him. Given all the history behind it. Not to mention he doesn't strike me as the type with a very high personal income..._

Sitting around they traded stories about the many times throughout this house.

From Patty reminiscing about how she considers it her home and had to be explained why he hadn't renovated years ago, to Yui having spent _her_ high school days living here as well.

 _I never knew how much Yui was there for Soujirou when he lost his wife. I'm glad he has family like that in arms reach._

Yui and him couldn't help but share a laugh at a shared memory of Yui dropping Konata as a toddler where she insisted on carrying one summer. Kanata came running in, and wouldn't let her carry her anymore.

Yui exaggeratedly started to cry as she recalled almost having a repeat of that with her own daughter a few years back.

"One day you just… put them down. And then you never pick them up again." Soujirou swirling his finger on the table, Patty dozing off on his shoulder as the hours grew later.

Kagami perked up. It was an off chance but….

"Well, at least you get to see them walk on their own when you do put them down." Kagami quoted, drawing on the last book of the romance series she so adored.

"Heh, I'm glad you like that book Kagami. Those things are hard to read I bet." Soujirou said, tousling the hair that remained on the back of his head. "The Grass is Bluer on the other side is kind of a hard read, especially considering the ending all."

"Life's a journey with the friends you adore." Kagami continued to quote, ", but at least I get to spend this Christmas with…"

 _You…_

Kagami trailed off, catching herself in what she was just implying, what the protagonist did after saying that. Soujirou can figure it out on his own. Kagami was just surprised that, of all people, Soujirou had read a pure romance book like that.

Soujirou looked away, through the patio window and out into the winter snowfall outside, seemingly thinking.

"Uhm… Patty, can you go cuddle with Yui,Soujirou said, pointing his finger up as if to make a point. Something Kagami had seen Konata do countless times before. "I wanna talk with Kagami for a bit."

Ushring Patty off his side as he leveraged crawled out of the kotatsu, flagging Kagami to follow.

"Uh..." Kagami said, just following the greying haired man as he led her upstairs, "Is something wrong?"

Soujirou simply nodded his head back and forth as he walked her into his study.

Kagami followed him, bewildered.

 _Did I say something weird? I mean, there's nothing wrong with him enjoying romance fiction. Konata has taught me there is some pretty good stuff in otakudom, but Bluegrass never struck me as very otaku pandering._

Kagami looked around, taking it the decaying room ceiling clearly falling apart in places.

Piles of paper stacked everywhere, and a shelf of some rather indecent looking comics and games, probably the one's Konata alleged she shared with him, lined a dozen bookshelves.

Incense burned next to a shrine to his late wife, table cluttered with strange objects. Kagami respectfully nodded at Konata's mother, watching over his study.

"Can you, uh, close the door Kagami?"

Kagami wasn't sure what was going on, but she turned around, complying as she noticed marks around the doorframe with names and ages, ones for Konata but also Patty and Yutaka.

"She suddenly got a little taller when she came home. I was surprised to see her actually grow again, the fourteen through eighteen marks were pretty much identical before then." Soujirou added, looking wistfully at the door frame.

Kagami jumped as she felt a hand swiftly dip into her pocket, Kagami too late to protect its contents as she swung around to look at him.

"I knew it."

Soujirou was holding small, blue felt box in the palm of his hand, flicking it open with his thumb to reveal the green-gemstone ring inside.

"That's just—!"

"No, it's fine. Please, just sit down at the table. I just want to talk." Soujirou said, a stern but calm air in his voice, unlike anything Kagami had heard from Konata's affable father before. It hardly even sounded like him. He was so serious

 _How does he…? Why did he…?!_

Kagami figeted tensely as she did what he said, taking a seat on a floor cushion as he set the box on the table in front of them.

 _This isn't how it is supposed to play out! How did he know?! I haven't even told anyone!_

" _How did you even know?!"_ Kagami pleaded, deep wrinkles of confusion drawn across her face.

For Soujirou's part, he simply sat down across the table from her, calm expression almost as if he had planned for this.

"I knew you were living together," Soujirou said, crossing his legs, the playful drunkenness gone from his mannerisms. "And I knew there was only one bed in your apartment. After all, I got to see your bedroom when Konata was sick."

Soujirou sighed somberly.

"It's kind of the inevitable conclusion, don't you think?" Soujirou shifted in his seat, taking in a short breath. "Honestly I was more scared history might be repeating itself.

"Kanata was around her age. Complications due to the flu." Soujirou said, the atmosphere off the shrine seeming to intensify.

Kagami sat silent, his worry coming into focus as discomfort swelled in her chest.

 _I… I never would have guessed… No wonder he was so distraught. In his mind it could very well have been the last time he'd ever see her awake..._

Kagami pictured it, quickly put away the image. It was not one she ever wanted to see again.

Soujirou gathered himself, running a hand through his greying hair. "But more importantly." He bluntly interjected.

Soujirou took a meaningful pause, before turning to pull a book off the shelf behind him.

"The Grass is Blue-er on the Other Side Volume 4?" Kagami observed still hardly understanding what was happening..

"I saw a signed copy, a lot like this one on your shelf while I was there." Soujirou said, rotating the book on the table to her. "You know Umi-chan is proposed to on Christmas day, right? That's tomorrow. Am I wrong?"

"I…This is just—"

 _What is happening right now?!_

"Right on the money, I see. Glad to see you are such a fan." Soujirou said, nodding in a sagely way that really did not fit the person she knew he was.

Kagami relented, it was obvious the cat was out of the bag at this point, letting out a deep sight.

"I'm kinda surprised you of all people would be a fan of a romance series, even having a signed copy sitting around. This stuff is usually more popular with girls you know?"

Soujirou cocked his head to the side looking at Kagami with plain confusion.

"Fan?"

"I mean, yeah, the author, she only gave these copies out in a postcard contest, and people were sending them in from all over Japan for just five of the things. I hardly expected—"

Kagami looked around the room, noticing a plethora of writing equipment and reference material.

And the blue haired photograph in the shrine on her left.

In a sunhat.

The gears lurched into motion.

 _Pen Name._

Kagami mouth flew open, eyes bulging in realization.

" _ **You wrote Bluegrass?!**_ **"**

By the look on Soujirou's face if he had been drinking anything surely he'd have spit it out, dawning shock washing over his face.

" _ **She never told you?!**_ **"**

"She hardly reads! She kept saying she forgot what it was you did and kept putting off asking!" Kagami said, arms gesticulating in surprise.

"She was in my _lap_ while I _wrote_ _the first book_!" Soujirou put his face in his hands, calm finally broken, visibly upset by the revelation.

"I knew she didn't read much, but she's my own daughter. She said she'd read them some day too… has she?"

Kagami avoided eye contact as the man let out a muffled, anguished yell into his hands.

As he took a few minutes to collect himself, occasionally taking breaks to peek up at the girl Kagami… took a moment to collect herself as well.

Looking around the room she saw a few manga Konata had mentioned. Quite a few romance books, and the calming presense of his late wife's shirne. She gently smiled at them in the photo frame.

On the shirne with it was a thick envelope, some ceremonial rice, an empty bottle of 1986 vintage wine, a small faded green box not dissimilar to the one on the table, amethyst ring still inside. and below that, a yellowing manuscript with Bluegrass's title on it.

 _Wow, he really_ did _write it._

"You know… I wrote those books initially to commemorate Kanata's life," Soujirou said, faking a gradually more convincing sense of calm. "But things quickly got out of hand. I had to take up a pen name when my editor convinced me I had something that might actually sell."

Kagami turned to her soon to be father in law, at least informally speaking, done freaking out as he idly leafed through the book in front of him.

"You know, I never wanted to be a writer, I was actually interested in computer science, back when it was all the rage." Soujirou looked wistfully at his wife. "Quickly learned that was way out of my league, though. Like father like daughter… I guess."

Flipping the book over, he continued, Kagami electing to remain silent as he spoke.

"I'd actually dropped out, figuring it just wasn't for me as I picked up several part time jobs here and there. It wasn't until she passed that I'd ever picked up a pen, let alone learned I apparently had a breadwinning novel in me."

"But enough of an old man's rambling. Kagami, I brought you here to tell you something—and that something I want to never reach Konata." Soujirou's eyes were filled to the brim with a deep, clear intensity. "Do you understand me?

Soujirou leaned over the table and looked Kagami in the eyes.

"I'll never let this ring leave this room if you don't agree."

Soujirou set his palm down on the box in front of him with a thud.

"This. Never. Leaves. This. Room."

Kagami gulped, the air suddenly turning cold as make himself clear. She'd never seen this side of him before, but she supposed she'd never really gotten to know him. He always seemed like such a weirdo from a distance.

 _But someone who can write like that..._

'Well, you don't exactly leave me any room for negotiation. I accept. I won't tell her about anything you tell me from this point forward." Kagami had no idea what it was he could possibly want to say, but she needed that ring tomorrow. This sounds important after all.

"Okay, here goes, then." Soujirou swallowed straightening his posture.

"Back in twenty twelve, while Konata still wasn't sure if she was pregnant or not, Hideki came in this room in a huff." Soujirou's eyes briefly darted off, quickly returning to meet Kagami. "He'd tried to ask me for permission to marry my daughter."

Kagami lurched.

 _This…That doesn't track with what Konata told me about their breakup._

"Yeah, I can see you noticed something's really off." Soujirou said, the slight glow of his face being the only thing to betray the look of his sagely nod. "I did too. I told him it was a bit early to be making a hasty decision like that, and he just insisted that it was the right thing to do in this situation. He was on his knees begging for Konata until I asked him something."

Kagami looked up in anticipation at the man as he drew out his words.

"I asked him if he really loves her that way."

Suddenly a piece fell into place.

 _That's what she said Hideki said to her..._

"We had a long, tearfilled heart to heart, something he made me promise would never reach Konata. He told me he felt like he needed to marry her for Konata's sake.

"How it was obvious she was in love with him.

"How he felt pressured to maintain this relationship by it—to find it in himself to love her the same way as more than a friend. To make her happy.

"He felt so happy being around her. Their relationship was great outside of his romantic feelings when the limierance faded.

Kagami couldn't help but notice how eerily similar this was to Konata's feelings , and the woods 'in Hideki's shoes' flashed to mind, putting Kagami in a cold chill.

"By the end of it, he concluded to break up with her before he could shatter her heart completely." Soujirou, crossed his arms tightly, pain for his daughter evident. "He'd probably be in an unfulfilling, weak marriage with her right now if I hadn't talked to him. I thought you should know this if you are serious."

Soujirou stood up, walking around the table bowing with hands in prayer at his wife's shrine as he passed.

He, by the door, framed by it as Kagami turned around in her seat, reached out with the ring box in an outstretched closed fist.

To Kagami, it was as if he was saying, 'take it if you can.'.

"Now, I have a question for you, Kagami." He said, his voice moving from sollum to stearn without missing a beat.

"Hiiragi Kagami-san, I'll ask you like I asked him."

A heavy atmosphere filled the room. His presence dominating.

"Can you make my Konata happy? Will you be there for the rest of her earthly years and those after? In happiness and heartache, in love and in strife?"

Without hesitation.

"Yes I will, sir."

"Bullshit, I don't believe you."

Kagami redoubled her attitude, she won't be played mind games with over Konata.

Dropping her head down as she bowed on her knees.

"I will be there for her in her everything. I will take your daughter and be the best I can possibly be for her."

Soujirou tilted his head up, looking down at Kagami intensely.

"I can't hear you, I'm growing deaf with old age you know!" He jeered defiantly.

Kagami pressed her head to the floor and began to yell.

"I love your honored daughter with every fiber of my being, and I beg of you that you give her to me!"

Soujirou yelled in kind.

"What's that you feel about her?! I can't hear you all the way up here!"

"I love her, sir!"

"Who do you love?!"

"I love Konata!"

"You love her?! What's that supposed to mean?!"

Kagami flung her head up to look him in the face.

"MORON! You know damn well what it means! It means I _love_ her! Don't make me say it again you… you, _moron_!" Kagami snapped, having enough of his roundabout theatrics.

"Now, _that's_ the tsundere she fell in love with!"

As Kagami's eyes focused she saw a cheesy smile, not at all like seconds before.

Kagami looked at him, dumbfounded expression slowly developing her face as she almost grew sick.

She had realized what he just did.

 _He just played me into acting like some_ anime stereotype!

 _Kagami's head connected with the floor with a dull thud, beleving all too hard that this is Konata's father._

"Okay… anyway can I please have the box back, Izumi-san, it feels kinda weird that you are holding it instead of her…" Kagami said, no small amount of disgust being held back that he successfully did that to her.

"Atta tsundere!" He said, giving a dumb thumbs up with his free hand.

 _The same dumb thumbs up Konata does…_

"At this point if you don't give it to me I'm going to take it by force." Kagami said flatly, his reaction being the deciding factor if she was serious.

"Alright, alright, I'll give it back Kagami, but I have two more things that need you to promise me two more things."

"More theatrics?" Kagami said sardonically.

"No, at least, not for you anyway."

He pulled something from behind him Kagami could have sworn it was- Looking back from the shrine she was right, it was the manilla envelope, oversized and thick to bursting.

"In this envelope is three and a half million yen, I want you to take it and buy any kind of drink you want, on the stipulation it be the vintage of the year you two got together, and that you open and drink it before you ask her."

Kagami's eyes shot wide.

 _That was the same thing the protagonist did for Umi-chan in the book before he proposed._ Kagami thought, considering the bottle on the shrine _. He must have based that on his own life. Umi did die of complications due to the flu at the end of the last book, after all..._

 _Wait… didn't… the protagonist nearly jump off the hospital roof…?_

Kagami pulled herself back to reality, choosing not to dwell on interpretation as the envelope of money stared her in the face.

 _Much more importantly!_

"I can't possibly accept that! It's way too much money. I could buy that a few thousand times over with that much!" Kagami said, pride and manners taking over.

Soujirou smiled gently, turning to the portrait on the shrine. "I think she's the one. I'm glad you'd understand. Better than I did, anyway."

 _About… girls together?_ Kagami thought, not having the time to process this before Soujirou turned, giving her a look that would not be interrupted.

"I wasn't giving you a choice in the matter. The rest is an engagement present." Soujirou spoke sternly, in no uncertain words. "I've been putting away money for a day like this for a very, very long time.

"Just take the money, spend the holiday together, do what you normally do. Have a good time together. It will help all of tomorrow go over more smoothly for the both of you. But second and more importantly—"

Soujirou reached over to the shrine once more, scooping something of it. He stared for a moment, as if conferring with the shrine, before turning back to Kagami, hand outstretched.

"Kagami, instead of using _your_ ring—"

* * *

 **December 25th, 2020**

 **Right Now**

 **11PM**

Kagami's heart thudded in her chest, doing her best to hide it as she took Konata's hand. Walking her out onto their balcony, the snow fell gently, the sky comfortably lit by the city's light caught in the clouds above them, not betraying the night sky above.

"Well, we gonna smooch or what?" Konata said, looking up at the growing red on Kagami's face, almost as deep as her dress.

"I…" Kagami started, mouth flapping for a moment before looking away from Konata.

"Kagami, is something wrong?" Konata said, reaching up to brush a bit of hair out from in front of Kagami's face. "You've been acting weird all day."

Kagami's shoulders slumped noticeable.

"You noticed? I've been trying so hard to keep it together."

"Kagami, I've lived with you for like five years. I can tell when something is wrong." Konata said earnestly, concern in her voice.

"It's just…" Kagami stuttered out, trying to make her feelings known. "I know it's not really officially possible…"

"Kagami?"

"Dammit, I tried to do everything I could to make this such a special day, but it's just been so…" Kagami said, straining to speak.

"A lawyer has to be prepared, and take decisive action… so!"

Kagami suddenly dropped to a knee, pulling a box she'd hastily stuffed behind the coffee this morning from behind her back.

"Konata," Kagami looked sharply into Konata's eyes, doing her best to dash any hesitation. "Will you marry me?"

Konata looked at the purple gemstone ring in the box and smiled.

"Yup."

Kagami stared up at Konata.

"Yup?"

"Mhm."

"Just… yup?"

"No, I just think you are taking this all a little too seriously, here. If you really want to get under my skin—"

Konata pulled two ribbons from her pocket, and with nimble fingers Kagami felt her hair on either side being drawn around the strips of cloth she kept on her person.

"You might have a little more luck like this～" Konata litled, finishing tying Kagami's carefully arranged hair into two long pigtails. "I know it's a little dumb, but—could you…"

"It's not like I like you… or anything, but…" Kagami said, letting herself do Konata's favorite thing in the world. "I guess I really, actually really do Konata."

"Konata… would you… just, take the ring already and be my wife, would you?!" Kagami said, faux anger marred by tears as she saw Konata had started to happy cry herself.

"Yes, of course you big dummy." Konata said, pulling Kagami into her arms, tears streaking her glasses. "That's all you had to say."

Kagami felt a tiny, warm frame in her arms and cried.

She thought back to those years she never thought she'd get to hold her in her arms.

She thought back to the day she thought she ruined everything in a drunken outburst.

She thought back to the time she was scared Konata was hurting herself with lies.

They all seemed so far away. Because this.. This was right now… and she was gonna make it last as long as she could. As long as they are still happy….

"You're thinking something sappy right now. Aren't you, Kagamin?" Konata said, slipping back to her playful nickname.

"Yup, you big idiot.. But you're _my_ idiot, Konata."

"And you are _my tsundere._ Oh, by the way, how'd you get mom's ring?"

"I've actually got my own, but… let's just say your dad told me to keep it. Along with some… other things."

 _Yeah I think I'll tell her about the money on new years._

"Sweet, parental acceptance for the win!"

Kagami looked flatly at Konata before bursting out laughing herself.

"God, you don't have to be such a dork about it, Konata."

"And you didn't have to be such a tsundere about it, _Kagamin._ , but let's face it."

Kagami smiled and looked into Konata's eyes, passed her tear stained glasses and knew what was coming next, Konata smiling back.

"That's why we fell for each other." They said in unison, leaning in for a long awaited kiss.

Pulling away, Konata looked at Kagami and pulled on her arm, back towards the door.

"Now come on, lets get inside already. It's freezing out here." Konata said, pulling the door open as the Kagami abruptly remembered cold, as if the moment took precedence.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear that, we can kiss some more under a nice warm blanket. That and we can get into some more comfortable clothes." Kagami said, holding Konata's hand as they walked through the sliding glass door.

 _I can just have her give me the ring I originally got for her later._

"Maybe we can get a bit more _comfortable_ than that?" Konata said, skeevy cheshire smile on her face.

"Sure, sure, let's just warm up then."

"Married sex!" Konata shouted, arms in the air easily loud enough for the neighbors to hear with the glass door open.

"Dammit, Konata." Kagami admonished "At least wait until I close the door…"

Shutting the glass behind her, Kagami let herself be pulled by Konata into their house. Their home.

The one they made together.

The one she spent all day worrying about how it happened.

Kagami smilled.

 _Honestly, I can't imagine it any other way._

 _ **-End**_


	14. Author Afterword

_**In memory of those who lost their lives at Kyoto Animation Studios.**_

 _ **Your works and what they mean to us will never be forgotten.**_

 _ **It's passion like yours that creates passion like ours.**_

 _ **And that is forever.**_

* * *

 _ **Sorry, I didn't want to make this somber, but me finally finishing this work came at a bleak time in our lives. Their work has touched many, and it would not feel right not to dedicate this, as it still develops at the time of this writing.**_

 _ **Thank you for reading up to this point and welcome to a small taste of the world that was the past several months of lack of updates and the creation of this story.**_

 _ **It's a terrible coincidence that I had picked this weekend to finish my story, after nearly 8 months of no updates, but life is strange like that. I just hope we can all take a moment to remember what these talented people at Kyoto Animation did for us.**_

 _ **Remember that the best way we can honor them, the best way we can show them we care, is to appreciate the work they spent their passion creating. To let it continue to be the best it can be in our minds, not let this poison the enjoyment of their work.**_

 _ **Unfortunately, when it came time to post my already completed chapters 9-13 back in November of 2018, I'd unfortunately found that they were in a sorry state too late.**_

 _ **I, tragically, had to scrap them and start the third act over from scratch. Between bouts of serious personal issues, and lack of consistent free time due to work… it sadly took me until now to find several straight interrupted days to focus entirely on editing.**_

 _ **I'm ... sorry to say that a second draft of 9-13 in a 80% complete state back in March of 2019, but between major additions necessary and the major edits needed, it wasn't until now that I was able to get it into a postable, final state. I hope you can forgive me for wanting it all done and posted at the same time.**_

* * *

 _ **Moving on, I believe I need to explain something. Due to technical issues on my end the wealth of images I collected for my afterword will need to be hosted off site in an imgur album.**_

 _ **Next to anything that references an image you will see, for example 1: means please refer to the image with 1 in its description.**_

 _ **You can find the album with these images at imgur under the url /a/AdvyL5l**_

 _ **Now, without further ado:**_

* * *

 _ **1: A few years back I encountered this image. As I grew older something about this cast and story was starting to slip, and grow gradually less relatable. The idea of this cast in their twenties seemed a natural jump to me, and I wanted to write stories about this. I'm sure you'll hear me drone on about this if you stick around. Though, admittedly, I'm not a fan of this image's design of Konata. It's much too feminin, it's honestly out of character, to me.**_

 _ **With this in mind I set out to write some stories, but I never could have done it without the help of some wonderful people in my life.**_

 _ **I'd like to thank Redler Red7, author of such fics as Three Sided Coin and Coinciding Moments. With their insider knowledge of Lucky Star fanfiction for their expertise and endless assistance in beta work, they helped this story be the best it could be. They are the best.**_

 _ **I'd like to thank my boyfriend for his endless support and beta work on this story. It was a long time coming but it's**_ **done** _ **this time.**_

 _ **I'd like to thank Heironym, author of such fics as To the Stars, which I'll be speaking of more near the end He showed me that fanfiction need not be any lower quality than any other media. Also, thank you for being a wonderful game master in the time in the down time I did get.**_

 _ **I'd like to Thank El Conservatore, author of fics such as the Emma's Story series of To the Stars Fanfics. You give me the hard criticism I needed to hear that was my self focused writing ethic was keeping me from considering the audience experience at all. Sometimes you need to hear what you don't want to.**_

 _ **I'd like to thank vdub63 for their help with beta work, enthusiasm, and date continuity control. Seriously, this was a mess to organize, I needed your help.**_

 _ **And last but not least I'd like to thank everyone who showed interest in this story over the past year. I don't think I ever could have found it in me to push through the early stages of writing this without you. Thank your forever. It's your passion that creates passionate people.**_

 _ **Now, next I'd like to move onto a more… let's call it piecemeal format of different little things I feel would be interesting to mention about the time I spent creating this work over the past 13 Months (heh.)**_

 _ **Much of this story was loosely inspired by personal experience one way or another. Life is hard.**_

 _ **2: The bookshop Konata works for isn't just any bookshop! It's the bookshop from Denki-gai no Honya-san! My second favorite comedy manga of all time, and perhaps… maybe the site of a future fic? Tragically the scans died around volume 8, but I have every intention of scantalating them some day as I work hard daily learning to speak and read Japanese. I highly recommend the manga. It feels like something Lucky Star fans would enjoy. The anime adaptation is okay, but is not nearly as good as the source material.**_

 _ **3: Redlerred7 graciously offered to do fanart for the image on the FFnet mirror of this story. It's not complete, but I'm flabbergasted that I have**_ **actual fanart** _ **to call my own.**_

 _ **4: Lonely Kagamin as a doujin was a major point of inspiration from this story, with the initial proposal essentially having this doujin as canon. Be warned, it's sort of a difficult read with some TW subject matter.**_

 _ **5: The picture that Kagami and Konata lauded so much, the one that Kagami took so much care of in her apartment was based on a real picture. Check it out!**_

 _ **6: The joke of "yuri feel" vs "lesbian feel" struck a cord with me and inspired much of the tone of this work. I didn't want to write just another yuribait story, as portrayals of actual LGBT subjects in Japanese media are a treat. And the difference between being written with an understanding of LGBT subject matter or just for flavor, is often exemplified by what Konata discribes here as yuri feel vs lesbian feel. Even if much of the lgbt themes of the initial proposal didn't make it into the final cut.**_

 _ **7: I actually drafted out the floor plans for their apartment to better visualize the present day sequences in their apartment!**_

 _ **8: Same goes for Kagami's apartment! Yes she stayed in this tiny thing for nearly six years...**_

 _ **9: Good Morning Cafe is a real place! Or rather, it was. Unfortunately it closed during the writing of this story. So much for creating an anime pilgrimage site...**_

 _ **10: In chapter 3 Konata mentions how Patty had read a book on bathing like a japanese person. This was based on an actual book I own! Also for some reason this book reeks of wood pulp. Like, it's genuinely unpleasant to hold in your hands. Don't recommend it, lol.**_

 _ **11: I did some references in Kisekai 2 to help better envision the differences between Konata and Kagami as they were in the series to Konata and Kagami in their late 20s.**_

 _ **12: The fried chicken thing isn't really that odd. After an incredibly successful advertising campaign decades ago, KFC is a Christmas staple in Japan. Yes, really. Google it.**_

 _ **13:**_ **Konata to** **〇〇〇** _ **is… a very scandalous doujin series that caught my eye many moons ago for making its relationship between its non blank slate male insert character surprisingly compelling, all despite how incredibly lewd it is. In case you haven't picked up, that's right,**_ _ **〇〇〇**_ _ **is**_ _ **ひでき**_ _ **, or for those who can't read kana, Hideki. This doujin is canon to 13 Years. So if you are of legal age and want to read more of the time Konata spent with her ex boyfriend, here you go.**_

 _ **Fun Fact, I actually looked up the weather for individual days, even if I did use artistic effect in some.**_

 _ **I can't for the life of me remember the name of the movie that Kagami was watching in chapter 6, but I was describing a real movie. I remember a man falling from a roof in the background at one point, maybe one of you knows?**_

 _ **Personally, when I write these characters, I hear the English dub in my head. I mean, for peat's sake it's Wendee Lee and Kari Whalgren. What more could you ask for?**_

 _ **Get this, though Kagami failed to see through her clever disguise, that doujin she bought at comiket, Umi to Umi, was written by Hiyori!**_

 _ **Also on the subject of Hiyori, for a great deal of planning Hiyori was planned as a major character conferring with Kagami through the forum Kagami posted on, the Lily Garden. Tragically, none of this made the final cut because I couldn't figure out how to make it relevant in the third act and it was taking away from Kagami's character arc. Sorry Hiyori, you'll get your day some day soon, hopefully.**_

 _ **Fun fact, I was writing notes for this virtually every chance I got, often sneaking away from work to do so. Making this never really left my mind and I have something like ten thousand words worth of notes as proof.**_

 _ **I came very close to retconning the spelling I was using of Soujirou to Sohjiroh, but I didn't want to take the time to change everything that came before it. Revised Hepburn Romanization or bust.**_

 _ **My working title was actually A Very Lucky Christmas! Yes, I'd planned the overarching plot from the very beginning, but it didn't become majorly relevant until the very end, so redlerred7 talked me into changing it. I settled on 13 Years to illustrate the length of time this takes place over in the title. In the end A Very Lucky Christmas proved a good title for my final chapter. What luck!**_

 _ **Also on the subject of chapter titles, I tried to make a theme of double meanings in every chapter title. Can you spot them all?**_

 _ **Do you know about Konata's evil twin Ko**_ **anta** _ **? Yes, K**_ **o a n** _ **t a. She spent years trying to infiltrate my work, tricking Kagami into thinking she was Konata, the dastardly villain! If you ever spot the doppelgangers of a typo, please tell me. But seriously I at some point accidentally added**_ **Koanta** _ **to my word parser's dictionary and I never got around to fixing it. Thank you, redlerred7 for spotting so many instances of this I missed!**_

 _ **Kagami's time spent learning a new language is highly inspired by my own struggles learning a new language, and the bilingual themes of another story I'll be talking about later are rooted in this!**_

 _ **I like to think that Konata keeps ribbons in her pockets in the same way someone might keep condoms on their person. You never know when you will need to make Kagamin!**_

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 _ **Now, next up I'd like to talk about some of the other stories I've had cooking for quite some time. With any luck you might be seeing one or more of these from me in the future!**_

 _ **14: I got so far into development for a story called Lucky Con before 13 Years I'd actually gotten permission to use that as the title from where I got that name from. I'd also commissioned said artist for original artwork of a planned cosplay scene (pictured)! Tragically, it was just not working at the time and I had to scrap the 7 chapters I'd already written and shelve the entire project. Apologies I don't have a better scan of this commission.**_

 _ **15: Lucky Con would follow Hiyori as she travels with Patty and friends to Chicago IL for Anime Central, Patty's home convention before she left for Japan. It would take place in 2021 after this story and introduce an old friend of Patty's, a new character I intend to create from scratch (I have an embarrassing amount of experience with this) who helped teach her Japanese! This may explain things about her accent. I also have plans to have a theme of characters speaking different languages others might not understand, and used**_ _ **「 」**_ _ **to signify the language being spoken was Japanese in the scrapped chapters.**_

 _ **16: It would also deal with the fact that Hiyori as I write her is a magical girl in the vain of Madoka Magica. Yes even in the continuity of 13 Years. These are all part of some grand scale efforts for some of my bigger original work set in the setting of To the Stars (which I mentioned I'd get back to earlier) a Madoka Magica sequel fanfic. The amount of plotlines converging is ultimately what killed it the first time, but I'm much more prepared to tackle it than I was the first time!**_

 _ **17 A Flat Chest is a Symbol is a story about my personal read that Koanta is likely nonbinary. This is something I plan to support in something of a series of progressing stories of Konata between chapter 12 and 13 realizing this herself with the help and support of Kagami and friends. I actually did a commision of art for this! (Pictured)**_

 _ **I'm also cooking up a Minami story following her in her early 20s joining a tabletop roleplaying group run by the secondary cast. When she unexpectedly picks a Paladin, a charisma based class, she finds it much easier to express herself through someone else, slowly finding her voice as I tell both the story of the campaign and Minami's personal journey in tandem.**_

 _ **I'm also working on a… quite explicit story of the time Hiyori got invited into Konata and Kagami's bedroom. More on that another time, hopefully. (sorry ffnet, this will be Ao3 only!)**_

 _ **No promises any of this will actually come to fruition, just consider this bonus information for all the time it took to finish 13 Years.**_

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 _ **And lastly I'd like to talk a bit about some of the original work I've been doing.**_

 _ **18 19 I mentioned that Hieronym had been my Game Master during this time for a tabletop game ,and I have been planning several potential stories following my magical girl character in these games: Alice. As well as her extensive family tree of characters I've created. (I'm planning for Patty's old friend to be Alice's great great grandmother! Yes seriously I'm that obsessed with family making, lol)**_

 _ **The first real, full sized one I'm planning will star her and another original character I plan to create in the far future setting of To the Stars. A mentor student story of a 300 Year old Alice, jaded with age, training a young mecha pilot with the potential to be better than she ever was. I plan to work on No Place for Giant Robots soon.**_

 _ **Don't expect any of these any time soon, but I like to release finished works… doubly so after the giant release gap between chapters 8 and 9, and I hope you'll understand.**_

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 _ **Thank you for reading all the way to the end. I've got to admit my hand is kind of cramping writing all this, but I figured many of you would find much of this interesting!**_

 _ **I hope to be seeing more of you in the future, and please, feel free to reach out to me in the comments. I can't tell you how much I appreciate questions, comments, and concerns. I make an effort to reply to them all thoroughly!**_

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 _ **20: Well, until next time. This was quite an undertaking! Thank you for reading my silly little story, and I hope this won't be the last I finish!**_


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